Andreas Athanasiou scores 5 goals to Barrie the IceDogs: Thursday’s 3 Stars

No. 1 star: Andreas Athanansiou

How do you spell Athanasiou? With three A's and five G's. The Detroit Red Wings prospect became the third OHLer to hit the 40-goal plateau whilst going off for career-high seven points (5G-2A, +4) during the Colts' 9-2 trampling of the Niagara IceDogs.

The speedster helped ex-'Dog Mitchell Theoret (2G-3A, +4) have a memorable homecoming. Athanasiou, who's already had two four-goal nights this season alone (including one vs. Niagara), got started early with two first-period goals. The Woodbridge, Ont., native drew the first helped on Theoret's tallies 23 seconds apart in the second and buried another goal in the final minute of that frame. Athanasiou scored two more in the third to ensure BTN's 3 Stars decisions would be easy, which is appreciated since the Olympics are such a distraction.

One-quarter of Athanasiou's goals have come vs. Niagara, which has the OHL's youngest back end. He has 15 games left to try to become the first Colts 50-goal scorer since 2010, including five against the likes of Ottawa, Owen Sound, Belleville and Niagara.

No. 2 star: Vincent Praplan, North Bay Battalion (OHL)

From gorging on goals to doing the grunt work to make the gang green look good. Praplan (3A, +2) factored in all of the scoring as the Battalion ground out a 3-2 comeback win over the visiting Windsor Spitfires.

The 18-year-old Swiss got an assist in the second period when captain Barclay Goodrow scored to get the Battalion within a goal just 74 seconds after it had fallen behind 2-0. In the third, Praplan found a trailing Miles Liberati on the rush, setting up the Vancouver Canucks-drafted defender to tie with 5:02 left. Dallas Stars draftee Nick Paul tipped in the winner with 3:10 to go, with Praplan getting the secondary assist. The win moved North Bay into third in the Eastern Conference.

No. 3 star: Nikolaj Ehlers, Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL)

Ehlers (2G-1A, +2) led the Herd to a 5-1 win over the Gatineau Olympiques. The dangerous 17-year-old Dane scored the icebreaker 6:13 into the game, then broke it open with an unassisted short-handed that opened a 3-0 cushion early in the second period. All told, Ehlers has 25 points in 16 games since Jan. 1.

Potent notables — NHL draft prospect Nick Ritchie got his 30th during Peterborough's 5-3 loss to OHL cellar dweller Belleville, which got two goals from sophomore Niki Petti ... San Jose Sharks second-rounder Chris Tierney scored his 35th during London's 11-0 win over Sarnia, which has lost 12-of-14 since the Jan. 10 trade deadline. The Knights had 10 goal scorers; the Sting had 18 shots on goal ... Eighteen-year-old Vladimir Tkachev scored twice during Moncton's 4-3 loss at Charlottetown; the Russian has 16 points in nine games since his midseason debut with the Wildcats.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.