No. 1 Star: Evgeni Malkin, Pittsburgh Penguins
Malkin tied a career high with five points as the Penguins steamrolled the Buffalo Sabres, 8-3. Malkin scored the third, fourth and seventh goals for the Pens, his seventh career hat trick; he assisted on goals by James Neal (his 18th) and Chris Kunitz. Malkin now has 15 goals on the season.
No. 2 Star: Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
Rinne faced 40 St. Louis Blues shots and three more in the shootout. He turned aside all of them save for one T.J. Oshie goal on a 2-on-0 on a power play. Rinne and the Predators won in the skills competition, 2-1, thanks to a David Legwand goal.
No. 3 Star: Erik Johnson, Colorado Avalanche
The defenseman factored into both Avs goals in their 2-1 victory over the struggling Washington Capitals. Johnson had a secondary helper on Cody McLeod's first of the season, and then answered an Alex Semin goal in the second period with his first goal in 38 games. Jean-Sebastian Giguere made their goals stand up with 25 saves.
Honorable mention: Brad Richards of the New York Rangers scored with just under 0.1 seconds left in the third to shock the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2. ... Steven Stamkos's third-period goal, his 20th, proved to be the game-winner for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3-2 victory against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Mathieu Garon, former Jacket, made 26 saves in out-dueling Steve Mason. ?� The Boston Bruins pummeled and pushed around the Philadelphia Flyers in their 6-0 win. Tim Thomas made 31 saves for the shutout. Six different Bruins scored; Rich Peverley had three assists. Zdeno Chara had a Gordie Howe hat trick. ? Patrik Elias scored two goals to help lead the New Jersey Devils to a 5-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens and interim coach Randy Cunneyworth. Elias became the all-time leading goal scorer for the Devils with 348 -- even if his teammates didn't realize it. ? Goals by Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau rallied the San Jose Sharks to a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. But this Jordan Eberle goal was pretty obscene:
Really entertaining game between the Vancouver Canucks and the Toronto Maple Leafs, as Alex Burrows set up Daniel Sedin's 13th and scored a goal of this own in the third. Said Burrows: "The Leafs have always been a team I hated as a kid." Phil Kessel tallied his 19th in the 5-3 loss. ? Thomas Vanek scored his 17th in the Sabres loss. ? Cory Emmerton had two goals and an assist as the Detroit Red Wings demolished the Los Angeles Kings, 8-2. Niklas Kronwall had a goal and two assists. Drew Miller had two goals; Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg also scored. ... After Andrew MacDonald and Cal Clutterbuck traded goals, it was Frans Nielsen and goalie Al Montoya who earned the New York Islanders the win in the shootout at the Minnesota Wild, 2-1. ? The Winnipeg Jets defeated the visiting Anaheim Ducks, 5-3, thanks to a 3-point night for Zach Bogosian (1 goal, 2 assists) and second-period goals by Andrew Ladd and Alex Burmistrov. Corry Perry scored twice for the Ducks. Check out the amazing ovations for Teemu Selanne in Winnipeg, where he also took a curtain call in his return to the city:
Fight of the Night: Cody McLeod dominated Matt Hendricks and was happy about it:
Did you know? Marc-Andre Fleury became the fourth-youngest goalie to reach 200 NHL victories since 1967, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. (AP)
Dishonorable mention: Here's how Milan Lucic explained his hit from behind on Zac Rinaldo, for which he was given a 5-minute major and a game misconduct (via Kukla):
Here's a hit to the head of Adam Larsson of the New Jersey Devils by Erik Cole of the Canadiens; said coach Pete DeBoer: "those are the hits you're trying to take out of the game."
Kings goalie Jonathan Quick gave up three goals on seven shots in 8:32. Ouch. ? Jack Johnson was a minus-4. ? Sean Couturier took a puck to the face and went to the hospital. ? Ilya Bryzgalov was chased after giving up five goals on 20 shots in 27:06. ? Ryan Miller made five saves on 15 shots and was pulled after 29:43.
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