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NHL Three Stars: Crawford, Hawks fly to playoff berth; Kings go goal crazy

CHICAGO, IL - APRIL 02: Corey Crawford #50 of the Chicago Blackhawks makes a save next to Daniel Sedin #22 of the Vancouver Canucks at the United Center on April 2, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

No. 1. Star: Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks

Stopped 35 of 36 Vancouver shots on goal to propel Chicago to a 3-1 win over the Canucks. The win was Chicago’s third straight and pushed the Hawks to just three points behind the first place Nashville Predators in the Central Division. Chicago also officially clinched a playoff berth.

No. 2. Star: Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings

The minute-crunching blueliner scored a goal, added an assist, was a plus-3 and played 24:18 in an 8-2 win by the Los Angeles Kings over the Edmonton Oilers. The victory put LA back into the playoffs over idle Winnipeg. Both have the same number of points (90) but the Kings have four more regulation and overtime wins. 

No. 3 Star: Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins

The Bruins netminder stopped 35 of 37 Red Wings shots on goal in a 3-2 victory over Detroit. This was big for the Bs as it kept Boston three points clear of Ottawa. The Senators won again and have a game in hand on the Bruins.

Honorable Mention: Florida forward Vincent Trochek scored two goals, added an assist and was a plus-4 in a 6-1 drubbing of Carolina … Florida goaltender Roberto Louongo stopped 31 of 32 shots on goal in the win, the 400th of his career … Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh notched two assists in 27:05 of ice time in a 3-2 win over Minnesota … New York forward Rick Nash scored a goal and goaltender Henrik Lundqvist stopped 26 of 28 Wild shots on goal … Minnesota defenseman Matt Dumba notched two assists …  Blues forward Jori Lehtera scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-1 win over Calgary … Blues forwards Patrik Berglund and Paul Stastny also scored a goal and added an assist … Bruins forward Carl Soderberg scored a goal and added an assist in the win over Detroit … Forward Reilly Smith picked up two assists … Wings forward Stephen Weiss scored a goal and added an assist … The Hamburglar struck again! Andrew Hammond picked up a win to move to 16-1-1 in a 2-1 victory over Tampa for Ottawa … Ottawa forward Mark Stone scored his 20th goal of the season … Washington’s Alex Ovechkin fired his 51st and 52nd goals of the season in a 5-4 shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens … Washington’s John Carlson notched three assists … Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban scored one goal and added two assists …  Washington forward Joel Ward scored two goals … Columbus won its eighth straight game in a 4-3 shootout win over the Islanders … Blue Jackets forward Ryan Johansen scored a goal … Islanders forward John Tavares scored a goal and added an assist … Chicago forward Marcus Kruger scored one goal and added one assist … Kings forward Marian Gaborik scored two goals and added an assist. Teammate Jeff Carter scored two goals. 

Did You Know?: Calgary’s Sean Monahan is the youngest player in team history to score 30 goals in a season at 20 years 172 days.    

Dishonorable Mention: Carolina’s Chris Terry, Andrej Nestrasil and Ron Hainsey were each a minus-3 … Canes goaltender Anton Khudobin allowed six goals to the Panthers on 35 shots on goal … Calgary defenseman T.J. Brodie was a minus-3 … Montreal goaltender Carey Price allowed four goals on 19 shots on goal … Oilers forwards Nail Yakupov, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Benoit Pouliot were each a minus-3 as were defensemen Oscar Klefbom and Keith Aulie … Oilers starter Ben Scrivens was yanked after allowing five goals on 21 shots on goal. 

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