Sunday, February 27, 2011

Saturday's Three Stars: Lucic returns home; Goligoski impresses

No. 1 Star: Milan Lucic, Vancouver Canucks

Lucic returned to Vancouver where he was born and played junior hockey and broke a 1-1 tie late in the third with his 27th goal to help give the Boston Bruins a 3-1 victory over the Canucks. Capping off his three-point night, Lucic assisted on Nathan Horton's tying goal and Patrice Bergeron's empty-netter to give the Bruins their fourth win in a row. Tim Thomas made 27 saves for his 28th win of the season. Boston has now won the first four games of their current six-game road trip.

No. 2 Star: Alex Goligoski, Dallas Stars

The newest Dallas Star had a heckuva third period. He scored his first goal for the Stars to tie the game at 2-2 and then 10 minutes later helped setup Loui Eriksson's game-winning power play tally in a 3-2 win over the Nashville Predators. After watching New Jersey win the game on Tuesday from the penalty box, Goligoski contributed a postitive memory for Stars fans thanks to a fortunate bounce:

No. 3 Star: Erik Condra, Ottawa Senators

Condra's first two NHL goals paced the Senators to a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers went up 1-0 and outshot Ottawa 15-3 after the first period, but goals from Condra and Nick Foligno in the second gave the Senators the lead for good. Playing in potentially his final game as a Senator, Chris Phillips scored his first goal of the season. Making 30 saves, Craig Anderson won for the third time in four starts since being dealt to Ottawa.

Honorable mention: Mike Knuble and Alex Semin scored 3:17 apart in the third period as the Washington Capitals came from behind to edge the New York Islanders 3-2. Brooks Laich added a goal and an assist as the Capitals won for the sixth straight time on Long Island ... The Islanders announced attendance was 16,250, their first sell-out of the season ... Blake Geoffrion become the NHL's first fourth-generation player when he made his debut for the Predators ... Andrei Kostitsyn's power goal with 3:53 to go in the third period was the difference as the Montreal Canadiens got by the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. Mike Cammalleri and Tomas Plekanec each recorded two points and Alex Auld made 28 stops for the win ... The Los Angeles Kings built up a 4-0 lead and hung on as the Colorado Avalanche launched a late comeback to win 4-3. Anze Kopitar scored his 20th of the season and Drew Doughty tallied his 10th. Ryan Smyth recorded his 400th career NHL assist. Los Angeles improved to 8-0-0 when Doughty scores this season ... Alexei Kovalev scored his first goal in his second tour of duty with Pittsburgh and then potted the shootout winner as the Penguins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-5. Kris Letang led all skaters with 32:47 of ice time and Mark Letestu scored and added an assist in his return to the Pittsburgh lineup ... Toronto forward Joffrey Lupul scored twice to give him 11 goals in 17 career games against the Penguins ... After Pavel Datsyuk went backhand and beat Buffalo Sabres Ryan Miller in the first round of the shootout, Hudler followed suit to clinch a 3-2 comeback win. Detroit fell behind 2-0 in the first period before a Datsyuk goal in the second period cut the lead in a half and then Hudler tied things with 58 seconds remaining in regulation. Mike Modano returned to the Detroit lineup after missing 41 games with a wrist injury.

Did you know? "Plekanec is the first Canadiens player to have five consecutive 20-goal seasons since Stephane Richer had six in a row from 1985-86 to 1990-91." (AP)

Dishonorable mention: Nashville dropped their fourth in a row ... Brian Boucher's four-game win streak came to an end ... Brian Elliott has allowed nine goals in his first two starts with Colorado.

Scarlett Johansson Christina Ricci Missi Pyle Jessica Alba Kylie Bax

No comments:

Post a Comment