Thursday, February 24, 2011

Tuesday's Three Stars: Jumbo powers Sharks; Staal vs. Staal

No. 1 Star: Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks

Thornton scored career goal No. 300 in the first period on the power play and set up Devin Setoguchi twice as the Sharks topped the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3. He outworked the Wings defense in feeding Setoguchi on the doorstep for one impressive goal. Jimmy Howard had 39 saves for Detroit while Antti Niemi had 35 saves.

No. 2 Star: Paul Stastny, Colorado Avalanche

Chris Stewart scored for the St. Louis Blues, assisted by Kevin Shattenkirk. Erik Johnson scored for the Avalanche. But in the end, it was Stastny who was the difference-maker in the first game between the teams since their blockbuster trade over the weekend, as the Avs won, 4-3, to snap their 10-game winless streak. Stastny assisted on David Jones' deflection and Milan Hejduk's power-play goal in the first, and scored the eventual game-winner in the third.

No. 3 Star: Steve Mason, Columbus Blue Jackets

Mason stopped 20 of 20 shots as the Columbus Blue Jackets shut out the Nashville Predators, 4-0. It was his second shut out of the Preds this season. Rick Nash scored twice in the win.

Honorable mention: The New Jersey Devils improved to 16-1-2 in their last 19 games with a 1-0 win at the Dallas Stars, as Nick Palmieri deflected home a broken-stick shot from Ilya Kovalchuk for the only goal. Johan Hedberg made 19 saves for the shutout. ... The Wild and Edmonton Oilers were tied, 1-1, heading into the third. Thus began the Pierre-Marc Bouchard show, as he assisted on two goals and scored a spectacular spin-o-rama goal in the Wild's 4-1 win. ... Optimus Reimer does it again. Toronto Maple Leafs rookie goalie James Reimer stopped 28 of 29 shots and Phil Kessel had the game-winner with 4:41 left in their 2-1 win over the New York Islanders. Best part? Reimer battled nausea in the first period and was afraid he was going to vomit on the ice. Now that would have been YouTube gold. ... Milan Lucic scored the first and final goals of the Boston Bruins' 3-1 win at the Calgary Flames. ... Henrik Lundqvist stopped 30 shots and all three in the shootout as the New York Rangers earned two points against the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3. Wojtek Wolski had the game-tying goal in the third and the game-winner in the shootout. ... Finally, Shane Doan scored the game-winner in overtime as the Phoenix Coyotes won their eighth straight, 3-2, over the Philadelphia Flyers. Ilya Bryzgalov had 37 saves. For Doan, it was his 1,098th game with the Winnipeg/Phoenix franchise, tying him with Teppo Numminen. ... Carey Price, B.C. native, made 37 saves as the Montreal Canadiens topped the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2.  ... Finally, here's some hot Staal on Staal action, as Eric collides with Marc:

Did you know? Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg caught the Habs and the Canucks game, making this either the worst sequel to "Rain Man" or the best episode of "Spaced" of all-time.

Dishonorable mention: Henrik Zetterberg was a minus-3 for the Red Wings. ... Jean-Francois Jacques and Brad Staubitz were both given misconducts in the third period. ... Zenon Konopka was given 2 for roughing and a misconduct for the Islanders, while Jay Rosehill was given a misconduct for the Leafs at the end of the game.

Milwaukee Wave Monterrey La Raza Philadelphia Kixx New Jersey Ironmen

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