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NHL Three Stars: Sparks makes Maple Leafs history; Gibson slams door on Canucks

NHL Three Stars: Sparks makes Maple Leafs history; Gibson slams door on Canucks

No. 1 Star: Garret Sparks, Toronto Maple Leafs

On Monday he became the first netminder in Leafs history to record a shutout in his NHL debut. Sparks was called up from the Toronto Marlies of the American Hockey League to start in place of the injured James Reimer and a struggling Jonathan Bernier. Sparks stopped 24 of 24 Edmonton Oilers shots on goal in the 3-0 win.

No. 2 Star: John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks

Gibson improved to 2-1-1 since his call-up from San Diego with a sterling 25 save performance in Anaheim’s 4-0 shutout over the Vancouver Canucks. Gibson helped the Ducks kill off a late four-minute double-minor high sticking call on Chris Stewart.

No. 3 Star: James van Riemsdyk, Toronto Maple Leafs

The young forward notched three assists and was a plus-2 in 17:33 of action. He has 16 points in 24 games on the season and seven points in his last six games.

Honorable Mention: Leafs forward Leo Komarov scored two goals … New York Rangers forward Derick Brassard scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes … Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello picked up his team-leading 22nd point – a goal – as the Rangers broke a three-game losing streak … New York Islanders forward Ryan Strome scored one goal and added an assist in a 5-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche … Islanders forward Mikhail Grabovski scored one goal … Colorado forward Jarome Iginla fired his 597th goal of his NHL career … Anaheim Ducks forward Rickard Rakell scored his sixth goal of the season and his third goal in four games … Anaheim rookie Nick Ritchie notched his first NHL point, an assist on a Jakob Silfverberg goal … Ducks forward Corey Perry scored a goal.

Did You Know? With their win over Colorado, the Islanders improved to 8-1-0 in their last nine home games against the Avs, dating back to Oct. 10, 1999.

Dishonorable Mention: The Carolina Hurricanes have allowed the fewest shots on goal per-game in the NHL at 25.3 but rank 24th in the league in allowing 2.88 goals per-game … Avalanche forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog were each a minus-3. Defensemen Zach Redmond and Brandon Gormley were also each a minus-3 … Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov fell to 5-7-1 by allowing four Islanders scores on 27 shots on goal ... Vancouver goaltender Ryan Miller allowed four goals on 29 Anaheim shots on goal before he was pulled … Dan Hamhuis had the turnover on the above Perry goal. The Canucks finished the month of November at 4-6-3.

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