NHL Three Stars: Beauchemin’s buzzer beater; Rakell goes from zero to hero

No. 1 Star: Francois Beauchemin, Colorado Avalanche

With 32-seconds remaining in the third period, the defenseman fired a puck on net. It deflected off of Buffalo Sabres defenseman Mark Pysyk and past netminder Robin Lehner.

No. 2 Star: Rickard Rakell, Anaheim Ducks

After turning over a puck earlier in the game to give Minnesota their first goal, Corey Perry and Patrick Maroon teamed up with Rakell for a tic-tac-toe scoring play to break a 1-1 tie. The goal would end up being the game winner in the 3-1 victory for the Ducks.

No. 3 Star: Brian Elliott, St. Louis Blues

Elliott improved to 10-5-4 on the season in the 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings. The goaltender had 29 saves and showed sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

Honorable Mention: David Backes had 2 assists and 7 hits for the Blues. Alex Pietrangelo also had 2 assists and 5 shots in a team leading 28:28 TOI. Oddly enough, both St. Louis goal scorers were in the bottom three of ice-time for the Blues. Ty Rattie scored the first goal off his thigh. Dmitrij Jaskin beat three Red Wings players and fakes out Petr Mrazek to score.

… Beauchemin and Alex Tanguay either scored or assisted on both Colorado goals in the 2-1 win. Evander Kane netted the only goal for Buffalo on the power play. Ryan O’Reilly, returning to Colorado for the first time since his off-season trade, picked up an assist on Kane’s goal. Lehner made 33 saves in the loss … David Perron earned his second point in as many games as a Duck on a goal that was originally credited to Shea Theodore. On his birthday, Hampus Lindholm had more ice time than even workhorse Ryan Suter with 28:33 to Suter’s 26:41.

Did You Know?

Francois Beauchemin scored 2nd tiebreaking goal in last 1:00 of regulation in as many days (9th overall in 2015-16): pic.twitter.com/QYA6jfUHk8

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 21, 2016

Dishonorable Mention: Pierre McGuire doesn’t know what Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill looks like. St. Louis played with only five defenseman due to lineup mismanagement by GM Doug Armstrong … Here’s Rakell’s aforementioned turnover directly to Jarett Stoll at center ice:

… In a freak accident, two players and one official were injured on the same play. Sam Reinhart and John Mitchell collided in the neutral zone, and away from the incident official Dave Jackson was hit by the puck. Reinhart and Jackson left the ice and only Jackson returned. Reinhart is out with an upper-body injury.