NHL Three Stars: Tarasenko powers Blues; Miller frustrates Maple Leafs

No. 1 Star: Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues

The Calder watch is on? The Blues rookie scored his third of the season, assisted on an Andy McDonald power-play goal and fed Alex Pietrangelo for the game winner as St. Louis sunk the Nashville Predators, 4-3.

No. 2 Star: Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres

Miller was brilliant in stopping 34 shots in the Sabres’ 2-1 victory at the Toronto Maple Leafs, including 13 saves in the third period. Cody Hodgson and Jason Pominville had the goals, while Nazem Kadri scored his second of the season for the Leafs.

No. 3 Star: Daniel Winnik, Anaheim Ducks

Ryan Getzlaf opened and closed the scoring for the Anaheim Ducks, who moved to 2-0 and held off the Calgary Flames, 5-4. But it was Daniel Winnik, of all people, who had a 3-point night with two goals and an assist. He scored in the first period to make it 3-0 for the Ducks, and then broke a 3-3 tie at 4:02 of the third. Winnik played 17:04 for Anaheim, and now has four goals on the season, tied for the NHL lead with Marian Hossa.

Honorable Mention: Tyler Seguin set up Brad Marchand’s regulation goal and scored a nasty shootout tally to help the Boston Bruins to a 2-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets. Chris Thorburn had the Jets goal. Tuukka Rask and Ondrej Pavelec both made 26 saves. … Damien Brunner’s shootout goal will be what’s remembered from it, but the Detroit Red Wings also owe their 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets to Pavel Datsyuk’s game-tying goal in the third from Niklas Kronwall and Henrik Zetterberg. Sergei Bobrovsky made 39 saves in the loss. … The New York Islanders scored three times in the second period, once more in the third, and then held off a Tampa Bay Lightning rally in the third for a 4-3 win. John Tavares had two assists. Steven Stamkos scored his first of the season. … Kyle Turris scored twice in the first period to set the tone and give Craig Anderson all the offense he’d need in a 4-0 shutout of the Florida Panthers. Jakob Silfverberg scored his first NHL goal in the win. ... Curtis Glenncross had two goals and an assist in the Flames' loss. … Tyler Bozak was 22-for-30 on faceoffs for the Leafs. … Patrick Hornqvist had a goal and two assists for the Preds.

Did You Know? … How amazing the Paul MacLean doppelganger is?

Dishonorable Mention: Matt Carle was a minus-3 for Tampa. … Nikita Nikitin and Fedor Tyutin were a minus-3 for the Jackets. … Jay Bouwmeester was a minus-3 for the Flames. … Patrick Kaleta had a Patrick Kaleta-ish 16 penalty minutes for the Sabres. … Jaroslav Halak was pulled after giving up three goals on 11 shots. ... Finally, if you aren’t a fan of fights off the opening faceoff, then you probably didn’t like the Lightning vs. Islanders game or the Wings vs. Jackets game, where Jordin Tootoo and Jared Boll had a tussle: