NHL Three Stars: Chicago wins 11 straight; Williams gets a hatty; Miller’s 47 save victory

No. 1 Star: Ryan Miller, Vancouver Canucks

Miller had a monster night in net stopping 47 shots in regulation and overtime. He continued the brick wall act in the shoot-out making all three saves.

No. 2 Star: Justin Williams, Washington Capitals

Shortly after Williams scored his first goal of the night, Caps netminder Braden Holtby left the game with dehydration. Williams went on to score 2 more goals for the hat trick in the Caps 5-2 win against the New York Rangers. It’s the second hatty of Williams’s career.

No. 3 Star: Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks won their 11th straight game on the back of a 3 point performance from Toews. The captain scored 2 goals and assisted on an empty netter in the Chicago 5-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens. Toews power play goal was nothing short of weird:

Honorable Mention: Carl Hagelin made his debut for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the team’s 5-0 win; he was held without a point in 13:15 TOI. Evgeni Malkin, Patric Hornqvist and Phil Kessel each had 2 assists versus the Carolina Hurricanes. Sidney Crosby tallied 2 goals on Eddie Lack. His second of the night, no. 14 on the season, was a beauty:

… Congrats to Vancouver’s Ben Hutton on scoring his first NHL goal. Radim Vrbata scored the only goal in the shoot-out … Nikita Kucherov netted 2 goals on Roberto Luongo in the battle of Florida. Ben Bishop improved to 18-13-3 with 26 saves in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 3-1 win … Chris Kreider scored both Rangers goals in the loss. Philipp Grubauer made all 11 saves after coming in relief of a dehydrated Braden Holtby … Michal Neuvirth improved to 10-5-2 in the Flyers shoot-out victory against the Detroit Red Wings … Patrick Kane scored his 29 goal of the season in the Blackhawks win. Corey Crawford made 27 saves. Marian Hossa scored a goal and had 2 helpers … David Perron scored in his debut has a member of the Anaheim Ducks. Jonathan Quick had 30 stops and earned his 25 win of the season. Anze Kopitar celebrated his new contract with 2 points against the Ducks. Rickard Rakell’s one handed deflection was one of the bright spots for Anaheim:

Did You Know?

Per @EliasSports: Ryan Miller (@VanCanucks) improved to 23-5-3 in 31 career regular-season games where he has made 40+ saves. #VANvsNYI

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 18, 2016

Dishonorable Mention: Tim Peel strikes again, this time injuring Pittsburgh’s David Warsofsky … Henrik Sedin played 5:12 before leaving the game due to an upper-body injury sustained on a hit by Mikhail Grabovski. Grabovski was given a game misconduct on the play … Aaron Ekblad unhealthy scratched again for the Flroida Panthers … Ryan White was ejected and given a match penalty for a hit to the head of Tomas Jurco. Wayne Simmonds thought he won the game for the Philadelphia Flyers with two seconds left but the goal was overturned for goaltender interference. Simmonds got his butt all up in Petr Mrazek’s grill:

… Ducks goaltender John Gibson covered the puck waaay outside of his crease and received a delay of game penalty in the final 20 seconds of the game against the Los Angeles Kings. There wasn’t sufficient evidence to overturn the no-goal call on Andrew Cogliano’s deflected/kicked in puck: