Sunday, 5 February 2012

Sunday’s Three Stars: Price blanks Jets; Kovalchuk powers Devils; Gomez doesn’t score

No. 1 Star: Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens netminder stopped all 23 shots he faced in their 3-0 whitewash of the Winnipeg Jets. Max Pacioretty, Alex Emelin and Tomas Plekanec had the goals. It was Price's 15th career shutout.

No. 2 Star: Ilya Kovalchuk, New Jersey Devils

The Devils sniper opened the scoring with his 22nd of the season and then had the primary assists on goals by Anton Volchenkov (!) and Dainius Zubrus in New Jersey's 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.

No. 3 Star: Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins

Hey, look who showed up in D.C.! Thomas made 35 saves in the Bruins' 4-1 win over the Washington Capitals, carrying a shutout into the third period until Marcus Johansson's goal at 12:04 broke it. Thomas made 14 saves in the final frame to preserve the win.

Honorable mention: Marian Gaborik scored goal No. 26 on the year and assisted on Michael Del Zotto's game-winner in the New York Rangers' 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. Artem Anisimov, Brandon Dubinsky and Ruslan Fedotenko had the other goals. … Zach Parise and David Clarkson scored their 20th goals for the Devils. Evgeni Malkin scored his 29th for the Penguins. …   The Bruins got goals from Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley, who also perfectly set up Lucic's goal. … Remember when Gaborik would have totally not gotten up from this, let alone score?

Did you know? The Rangers wore their Winter Classic white sweaters for the first time at home.

Fight of the Night: Brandon Prust vs. Tom Sestito, in which Sestito earned the last of his 25 penalty minutes for the game after his third fight:

Dishonorable mention: Marc-Andre Fleury was yanked after giving up three goals on 12 shots. … Chris Kunitz, Evgeni Malkin and James Neal with a minus-4. … The Capitals' Brooks Laich "limped out of Verizon Center on crutches and sported an immobilizer on his left knee after getting crunched along the end boards in the second period by Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg." … The Flyers lost for the third time in four games. … Matt Carle and Scott Hartnell were a minus-4. … Finally, it appeared Scott Gomez might have touched the Canadiens' final goal. Alas, he did not, and thus it's been one full year since his last goal. Money well spent.



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