NHL Three Stars: Tarasenko breaks funk; Stars best Blackhawks
No. 1 Star: Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues
The St. Louis sniper scored two goals and added an assist in a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks. The Blues have won five straight games to vault themselves into second-place in the Central Division. Tarasenko broke out of a funk where he had just two points (one goal and one assist) in six games.
No. 2 Star: Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars
The Stars captain scored one goal and one assist in a 5-2 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. Dallas has 90 points on the season, one ahead of the Blues for first-place in the Central Division. Benn has one goal and three assists in his last three games.
No. 3 Star: Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins
Fleury became the fourth-fastest goaltender in NHL history to reach 350 wins in a 3-2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. He hit the mark in 645 games played. Fleury stopped 25 of 27 Blue Jackets shots on goal in the win. With the victory, the Penguins remained in an Eastern Conference Wild Card spot, three points clear of being out of the playoffs.
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Honorable Mention: St. Louis forward Jori Lehtera scored a goal … Paul Stastny and Patrik Berglund also scored for the Blues … Sam Gagner and Matt Read both fired power play goals to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning … Philly goaltender Steve Mason stopped 18 of 19 shots on goal … Brian Boyle scored Tampa’s only goal … Pittsburgh Penguins forward Phil Kessel notched two assists in a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets … Pens defenseman Kris Letang scored a goal … Columbus forward Gregory Campbell scored a goal and added an assist … Pittsburgh forward Evgeni Malkin notched two assists but left the game in the second period after an awkward collision with Dalton Prout … Stars forwards Ales Hemsky, Jason Spezza and Tyler Seguin each scored a goal and added an assist … Blackhawks forward Tomas Fleischmann scored a goal and added an assist … Arizona Coyotes forward Brad Richardson scored two goals in his team’s 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames … Arizona captain Shane Doan notched two assists and teammate Antoine Vermette scored a goal and added an assist … Mikael Backlund scored Calgary’s only goal.
Did You Know? Stars bench boss Lindy Ruff won his 693rd career game as a head coach. This moved him into fifth-place on the NHL’s all-time list over Dick Irvin.
Dishonorable Mention: Anaheim Ducks defenseman Cam Fowler was a minus-4 … Ducks forwards Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf were each a minus-3 … Flames center Sean Monahan was a minus-3 … Blackhawks goaltender Corey Crawford was pulled after allowing four goals on 20 shots on goal.
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