NHL Three Stars: Lightning’s Vasilevskiy shuts down Sabres
No. 1 Star: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
The Bolts goalie made 30 saves, including 20 in the second period, as Tampa topped the Buffalo Sabres, 4-1. Steven Stamkos scored No. 7; Jack Eichel had No. 5 in the loss.
No. 2 Star: Mikael Backlund, Calgary Flames
The Flames forward assisted on Josh Jooris’ goal and then scored a clunky goal that deflected off his midsection and into the Philadelphia Flyers’ net for the 2-1 Calgary win in overtime.
No. 3 Star: Brandon Dubinsky, Columbus Blue Jackets
Dubinsky assisted on Cam Atkinson’s power-play goal and scored one of his own to get the Jackets off to a strong start on the road in the first period. Sergei Bobrovsky made 33 saves in the 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Kings.
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Honorable Mention: Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec each had a goal and an assist and David Desharnais scored the tie-breaker in the Montreal Canadiens’ 4-1 win over the New York Islanders. Mike Condon made 17 saves. … Pekka Rinne made 27 saves in the Nashville Predators’ 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild. Cody Hodgson had the game-winning goal in the third, his first as a Pred. … Alex Ovechkin scored his seventh and John Carlson had a goal and an assist in the Washington Capitals’ 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins. Braden Holtby made 28 saves. … Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris and Mika Zibanejad all scored in the shootout as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Winnipeg Jets, 3-2. Craig Anderson made 38 saves. … Nicklas Grossmann had two goals and Mike Smith made 26 saves in the Arizona Coyotes’ 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche. … Second-period goals by Patrick Marleau and Marc-Edouard Vlasic propelled the San Jose Sharks to a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers.
Did You Know? The Panthers successfully overturned a Sharks goal with a coach’s challenge on an offside play:
Dishonorable Mention: The Blue Jackets and Kings combined for 52 penalty minutes. … Columbus didn’t have a shot on goal in the second. … Nikita Zadorov was a minus-3. … Alex Petrovic was a hideous minus-5. Dmitri Kulikov and Jaromir Jagr were a minus-4. … Zach Parise left the Wild’s game with a lower-body injury after a nasty James Neal hit.
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