NHL Three Stars: Burns scores twice; Bruins blank Canadiens
No. 1 Star: Brent Burns, San Jose Sharks
Burns scored two goals in a 4-1 victory at the New Jersey Devils. He now has 24 goals, which leads all defensemen by 11 ahead of second-place Shea Weber. Burns is on pace for 35 goals and 85 points on the season. He is the first defenseman since Kevin Hatcher in 1992-93 to score 16 road goals in a season. The victory broke a four-game losing streak by San Jose.
No. 2 Star: Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins
The Boston goaltender stopped all 25 Montreal Canadiens shots on goal in a 4-0 victory Sunday. With the win, Boston improved to 3-0-0 under interim coach Bruce Cassidy. The game was Boston’s first regular season home win against the Canadiens since Jan. 12, 2012, a stretch of nine games. Rask improved to 27-13-4 on the season.
No. 3 Star: Nick Leddy, New York Islanders
Leddy scored a goal and added two assists in his team’s 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. The victory helped the Islanders move to within one point of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. Leddy has 31 points in 53 games and is on pace to break his career-high of 40 points in 81 games set last season. His nine goals is one off his career best of 10 set in 2014-15. New York improved to 8-2-2 since Doug Weight took over for Jack Capuano as head coach.
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Honorable Mention: Sharks forward Joe Thornton scored a goal, added an assist and was a plus-3. He now has 996 assists on his career. … San Jose forward Tomas Hertl scored a goal. …Sharks forward Kevin Labanc notched two assists. … San Jose forward Joe Pavelski notched an assist and was a plus-3. … Minnesota Wild forward Zach Parise scored two goals in a 6-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings. … Wild forward Charlie Coyle scored a goal and added an assist. … Minnesota forwards Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville and defenseman Gustav Olofsson each notched two assists. … Detroit forward Anthony Mantha scored a goal and added an assist. … Red Wings forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Andreas Athanasiou each scored a goal. … New York forward Anders Lee scored his 20th and 21st goals of the year. … Islanders forward John Tavares and defenseman Johnny Boychuk each notched two assists. … New York forward Jason Chimera scored his 13th goal of the season. … Colorado forward Joe Colborne scored his first goal since his hat trick on Oct. 15. … Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi scored two goals in a 5-3 comeback win over the Dallas Stars. … The Predators scored four goals in the third period and were down 3-0 in the second before Josi’s first goal at the 15:25 mark of that frame got them on the board. … Nashville forward Filip Forsberg scored the game-winner. … Predators forward Calle Jarnkrok scored a goal. … Nashville forward James Neal and defenseman P.K. Subban each notched two assists. … Stars forward Jamie Benn scored a goal and added an assist. … Dallas forward Patrick Sharp scored his seventh goal of the season. … Bruins forward David Krejci scored a goal and added an assist. … Bruins defenseman Zdeno Chara scored a shorthanded goal. … Boston forward Peter Cehlarik notched two assists. … Bruins forward Brad Marchand notched an assist. … Vancouver Canucks forward Michael Chaput scored two goals in a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres. … Vancouver forwards Alex Burrows and Bo Horvat each scored a goal and added an assist. … Canucks goaltender Jacob Markstrom stopped 26 of 28 shots on goal. … Sabres forwards Tyler Ennis and Kyle Okposo each scored a goal.
Did you know? At 37-12-6 this season the Wild have 80 points in 55 games. The Wild had 38 wins in 82 games last season and hit 37 wins at Game 76, which was March 26.
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Dishonorable Mention: Colorado defenseman Francois Beauchemin was a minus-3. … Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard allowed five goals on 33 shots on goal. … Red Wings goaltender Jared Coreau allowed six goals on 30 shots on goal. … Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen allowed four goals on 35 shots on goal as his team blew a 3-0 lead. … Montreal goaltender Carey Price allowed four goals on 36 shots on goal. … The Canadiens have gone 1-5-1 in their last seven games. … Sabres forwards Evander Kane and Jack Eichel were each a minus-3. … Buffalo goaltender Robin Lehner allowed four goals on 31 shots on goal. … Red Wings forward Gustav Nyquist was offered an in-person hearing with the NHL for his high-stick on Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon.
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