Saturday, 18 February 2012

Saturday’s Three Stars: Four points for each Sedin; Kiprusoff blanks Kings

No. 1 Star: Henrik/Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks

Another night of collecting points for the twins as the Canucks downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-2. Each Sedin had four points with Daniel notching a goal and three assists and Henrik chipping in four helpers. The other member of the Sedins line, Alex Burrows, scored twice and Roberto Luongo made 24 saves to improve to 7-0-3 in his last 10 games.

No. 2 Star: Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary Flames

In a battle of Sutter brothers, Brent bested Darryl as the Flames shutout the Los Angeles Kings 1-0. Mike Cammalleri scored the game's only goal 4:03 into the third period as Calgary moved past the Kings into the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference. Kiprusoff recorded his 44th career shutout and fourth of the season with a 28-save night and kept the Kings off the board with this stunning glove save on Mike Richards:

No. 3 Star: John Tavares, New York Islanders

After winning No. 1 star honors for the month of January, Tavares had been goalless in February until Saturday night when his two-goal, one-assist night helped boost the Islanders over the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. After tying the game at two early in the second period, Tavares' second of the night 38 seconds into the third period stood as the game winner. The win gave the Islanders their first ever season sweep over the Hartford/Carolina franchise.

Honorable mention: Steven Stamkos notched his league-leading 40th goal and Mathieu Garon stopped 23 shots as the Tampa Bay Lightning edged the Washington Capitals 2-1 ... Two days after snapping their 9-game losing streak, the Chicago Blackhawks routed the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-1. Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews each chipped in three points, while Corey Crawford stopped 33 shots. Toews' goal was a beauty of the coast-to-coast variety:

Brian Elliott needed only 13 saves as the St. Louis Blues blanked the Minnesota Wild 4-0. Barret Jackman scored his first goal in 150 games as they won for the sixth time in seven games ... Mike Smith made 30 saves and Radim Vrbata scored his career-high 28th goal of the year 1:15 into overtime to give the Phoenix Coyotes a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars:

James Neal scored his career high 30th goal of the year and Matt Cooke recorded his first multi-goal game since opening night in Vancouver as the Pittsburgh Penguins powered past the Philadelphia Flyers 6-4. Cooke's second of the afternoon was one of two Pittsburgh shorthanded tallies in the span of 1:43 and came while the Penguins were down 3-on-5:

Jaromir Jagr scored twice in 18 seconds in the loss. He now has 661 career goals, seven behind Luc Robitaille for 10th all-time ... Flyers rookie Eric Wellwood scored his first NHL goal.

Did you know? Of the 30 wins the Blues have since Ken Hitchcock took over on Nov. 6, 11 have been shutouts.

Dishonorable mention: Steve Mason was pulled after allowing four goals in 35:30 and was caught on camera jawing at a fan while on the bench ... The Flyers have now dropped six of eight ... Jordan Staal was fined $2,500 by the NHL for boarding Braydon Coburn ... Things got very chippy at the end of the Blues-Wild game and resulted in Warren Peters getting a phone hearing with the NHL on Sunday for cross-checking David Backes in the head ... Cam Ward left the game after the second period with a "lower-body" injury. He'll be re-evaluated on Sunday.



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