Daniel Audette stars in home rink as Team QMJHL wins: Super Series 3 Stars

Buzzing The Net's 3 Stars from Game 2 of the Subway Super Series, won 4-3 by Team QMJHL to give the CHL a 6-0 points lead over Russia:

No. 1 star: Daniel Audette, Team QMJHL

Team QMJHL coach Benoît Groulx maintained before the series opener that the 17-year-old standout was not on the squad just to goose ticket sales for the Sherbrooke game. Then Audette (1G-1A, +2 on Wednesday) was scratched for that game in Gatineau. Given a chance to draw in, the son of former pro Donald Audette factored into the bookend goals that gave the Q the win.

In the first period, the former first overall pick darted inside to bury the game's first goal after Phoenix Coyotes second-rounder Laurent Dauphin's wraparound try created a rebound. Audette had to adapt to new linemates after Dauphin was banished for a checking-from-behind major/game misconduct.

A shootout was looming with fewer than eight minutes left when Audette, New York Rangers third-rounder Anthony Duclair, Rimouski's Anthony DeLuca and defenceman Nikolas Brouillard, applied pressure in the Russian end. That led to Duclair scoring on a spin-around backhand. Audette was given an assist on that play.

No. 2 star: Vladimir Tkachev, Russian selects

Coming September 2014 to the Moncton Coliseum? Tkachev was, rather enigmatically, kept on the bench in the final minute with Russia staring at a one-goal deficit. It seemed like an odd time for coach Mikhail Varnakov to make a point. The 18-year-old NHL draft prospect was once again Russia's man of the match. Tkachev (2A, +2) got an assist on Russia's 2-2 goal in the final seconds of the first stanza, when a QMJHL defensive lapse led to a quick pass that Igor Rudenkov (1G-1A, +2) cashed in for the goal.

No. 3 star: Anthony Duclair, Team QMJHL

Duclair (1G, +2) was deserving winning goal scorer, since he played with an edge and an energy throughout both games. After Team QMJHL got all of its scoring from the Jonathan Drouin-Charles Hudon-Anthony Mantha line on Monday, it was imperative to get it from different sources. Three lines got on the scoresheet.

Honourable mention: Igor Shesterkin, Russian selects

Russia's goalie, who will turn 18 during the world junior championship, stopped 37-of-41 shots to maintain a one-goal margin on a night when his team was widely outshot. The winning goal came on a dribbler, but prior to that, the draft-eligible 'tender made several Grade-A stops. The first three goals on Shesterkin were all good ones — a rebound, a flip from Mantha when the goalie was already stretched out, and a screened redirection. Shesterkin definitely gave a good accounting of his credentials to be drafted next summer.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.