Monday, December 12, 2011

Thursday?s Three Stars: Theodore owns Boston; OT thrillers

Thursday?s Three Stars: Theodore owns Boston; OT thrillers

No. 1 Star: Jose Theodore, Florida Panthers

Talk about your statement games: Theodore stopped all 40 shots he faced, making third-period goals by Tomas Kopecky and Kris Versteeg stand up in a 2-0 victory at the Boston Bruins. Theodore was the backbone all night, including on the penalty kill as the Bruins went 0-for-4. He snapped Tim Thomas's winning streak at 10 games. The Panthers moved ahead of Boston in the conference standings.

No. 2 Star: Patrick Sharp, Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks scored three goals in their 3-2 win against the New York Islanders, and Sharp factored in on all three. He assisted on Marian Hossa's first period goal (the 400th of his career) and then scored two of this own ? including the overtime game-winner. Hossa had a goal and two assists. Ray Emery got the win, moving to 5-1-2 this season.

No. 3 Star: Matt Hackett, Minnesota Wild

In his first NHL start, Hackett made 42 saves and backstopped the Wild to a 4-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings. He turned back 16 of 18 shots in the third period. Making 42 saves in the win, he made 65 straight saves until Dustin Penner's third period goal.

Honorable mention: Adam Henrique's goal and Johan Hedberg's save on David Rundblad gave the New Jersey Devils a 5-4 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators that wasn't without frustration. The Devils rallied from a 3-0 deficit to take a 4-3 lead, but then saw Jesse Winchester tie the game with five seconds remaining to force overtime. Milan Michalek scored his 18th for the Sens. ? Colin Wilson scored at 1:45 of overtime as the Nashville Predators defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets, 4-3, but getting there was the remarkable part: Patric Hornqvist and Sergei Kostitsyn scored in the last two minutes of the game to force OT. Martin Erat assisted on the game-winning and the game-tying goals. ? Dominic Moore had the misfortune of injuring Marty St. Louis in practice, ending his Ironman streak at 499 games. He entered the Tampa Bay Lightning's game against the New York Rangers wanting to "win one for Marty." Moore scored the game-tying goal in the third period shorthanded, and then scored in the shootout to ice it. The Lightning beat the Rangers, 3-2. ? Vancouver rallied from a 3-0 deficit at the Montreal Canadiens, tying the game on a Sami Salo goal at 15:20 of the third and then getting a shootout goal from Cody Hodgson for the 4-3 win. ? Fr�d�ric St-Denis scored his first NHL goal for the Habs. ? Scott Hartnell's 13th goal of the season stood up for the Philadelphia Flyers, as they defeated the short-handed Pittsburgh Penguins, 3-2. James Neal scored his 15th in the loss. The Flyers took over first place with the win. ? Valtteri Filppula, Jiri Hudler, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk all have two points as the Detroit Red Wings built a 5-0 lead in the first and hung on for the 5-2 victory. ... Radim Vrbata scored his 14th for the Coyotes. ? T.J. Oshie scored two goals, including an empty netter to ice it, as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Anaheim Ducks, 4-2. The Blues have now won 13 of 15 since Ken Hitchcock grabbed the helm. ? Olli Jokinen's third-period goal boosted the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory. Matt Duchene scored his 10th in the loss. ? The San Jose Sharks received five goals from five different players, including Logan Couture's 11th, defeating the Dallas Stars, 5-2.

Fight of the Night: This scrap between Tyler Kennedy and Harry Zolnierczyk was short and spirited; but check out the "rock bottom" to end the tilt from Kennedy.

Did you know? Weirdness in Jersey: The Devils and Senators played 5-on-5 hockey for a good portion of overtime.

Dishonorable mention: Martin Brodeur was pulled again for the Devils, giving up two goals on nine shots. ? Daniel Paille was "dinged up" and skated one shift for the Bruins. ? Zenon Kopopka earned a misconduct for instigating a fight against Mark Fraser. ? Luca Sbisa was a minus-3 for the Ducks ? T.J. Galiardi had a double-minor for high-sticking in the third period, and the Flames scored twice during it. ? Mike Smith was chased in 15:29 for giving up four goals on 11 shots. ? Andrew Raycroft was lifted after two periods, after giving up five goals for the Stars. ? Coach John Tortorella said of Artem Anisimov's shotgun celebration: "I don't think he realized what would happen in that type of situation and I don't think that's planned by him to go that far." ? Finally, Kyle Brodziak was given five and a game misconduct on a questionable boarding penalty on Anze Kopitar, who crashed into the boards head-first. Interference? Sure. A game misconduct for boarding? Overreaction.

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