NHL Three Stars: Rinne blanks Bruins; Domi dazzles Stars

No. 1 Star: Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators

Hey, remember when Pekka Rinne was a dominant goalie who would pitch shutouts regularly? We saw that guy on Thursday night, as he made 29 saves and blanked the Boston Bruins, 2-0, on goals from Craig Smith and Filip Forsberg.

No. 2 Star: Max Domi, Arizona Coyotes

This could have gone to his entire line, but it’s not “Five Stars.” So with due respect to Anthony Duclair (three assists) and Martin Hanzal (1 goal, 2 assists), we’ll give this one to Domi for scoring two big second-period goals in the Coyotes’ 6-3 win over the Dallas Stars.

No. 3 Star: Brian Elliott, St. Louis Blues

Elliott made 34 saves, outdueling Jonathan Quick, as the Blues defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1. That included this awesome save on Milan Lucic in overtime, preserving the tie before Jaden Schwartz won it for the Blues.  

Honorable Mention: Alex Ovechkin scored two goals and Justin Williams had the overtime game-winner, as the Washington Capitals scrambled their lines and defeated the New York Islanders, 3-2. … Phil Kessel scored twice, giving him 18 goals on the season, as the Pittsburgh Penguins routed the Detroit Red Wings, 6-3. Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist. Dylan Larkin scored goal No. 19. … Cody Ceci and Mark Stone scored third-period goals as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2. Craig Anderson had 30 saves. … Crazy-pants game between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Winnipeg Jets, as the Bolts blew two three-goal leads, gave up four straight goals in the third period, rallied to send the game to overtime and then won a five-round shootout. Steven Stamkos scored career goal No. 299 and had the game-winner in the shootout, as Tampa won 6-5. Andrew Ladd had two goals for the Jets. … Derick Brassard had two goals and Mats Zuccarello had a goal and two assists in the Rangers’ 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. … Martin Jones made 19 saves and Joe Pavelski and Joonas Donskoi had shootout goals in the San Jose Sharks’ 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers. … The Minnesota Wild are apparently now an offensive juggernaut. They defeated the Edmonton Oilers, 5-2, with goals from five different players. Mikeal Granlund, Matt Dumba and Thomas Vanek all had a goal and an assist. … Connor McDavid scored his 10th. … The Anaheim Ducks defeated the Vancouver Canucks, 5-2, to improve to 11-1-1 over their last 13 games and move to within two points of the Los Angeles Kings for first in the Pacific. Ryan Getzlaf, Rickard Rakell and Sami Vatanen each had a goal and an assist.

Game Of The Night

The Bolts and Jets had the game of the night, both in brutality and unpredictability.

Did You Know? Jaromir Jagr scored his 18th of the season and 740th of his career, putting him one behind Brett Hull for third place on the career NHL scoring list.

Dishonorable Mention: Petr Mrazek was pulled after giving up five goals on 32 shots against the Penguins. … Eric Staal and Kris Versteeg were a minus-3. Versteeg also had a misconduct near the end of the game. … Nazem Kadri and Frank Corrado were both a minus-3. … Leo Komarov will be getting a call from the Department of Player Safety for this hit on Ryan McDonagh. … Tommy Wingels will be out “for a little while” with an undisclosed injury. … Anze Kopitar left the Kings’ loss in the first period with a lower-body injury. … Alex Gologoski, John Klingberg and Tyler Seguin were a minus-3. ... Paul Maurice was ejected for losing his temper over these Anton Stralman hits, one of which injured Bryan Little:

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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