NHL Three Stars: Tavares ends Isles mini skid; Smith stops Coyotes slump

No. 1 Star: John Tavares, New York Islanders

Scored a goal and added an assist for the Isles in a 4-3 downing of the Central Division leading Nashville Predators. Tavares now has points in four of his last five games and nine of his last 11. New York took control of first place in the Metropolitan Division with the victory. He played 20:32 and won 60 percent of his face offs. New York had lost two in a row before the contest.

No. 2 Star: Mike Smith, Arizona Coyotes

Channeled his inner mid-20s Nikolai Khabibulin (or Darcy Wakaluk) stopping 32 of 34 Vancouver shots on goal including all three Canucks shootout shooters in the Coyotes’ 3-2 retro night win. The victory ended a 10-game losing streak for Arizona. Check out that sweet old school 'Yotes jersey in action.

No. 3. Star: Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild

Improved to 17-3-1 with Minnesota, stopping 24 of 25 Washington shots on goal in a 2-1 win over the Caps. Seriously, this guy is on fire. He has started 22 straight games for Minnesota. In that stretch he has a 1.62 goals against average and .938 save percentage.

Honorable Mention: Defenseman Nick Leddy scored a goal and added an assist for the Islanders in their win over Nashville … Forwards Craig Smith and Mike Ribeiro each scored for Nashville in the loss … Florida defenseman Dmitry Kulikov scored a goal and added an assist in a 4-3 shootout win over Dallas … Florida’s Dan Ellis stopped 29 of 32 Dallas shots on goal … Forward Shawn Horcoff scored a goal and added an assist for Dallas … Tampa center Steven Stamkos notched two assists in a 4-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs … Tampa defenseman Jason Garrison notched an assist and was a plus-2 and goaltender Ben Bishop picked up his 32nd win of the season … Forwards Richard Panik and David Booth each scored for Toronto …  Forward Jason Pominville scored two goals for Minnesota in its win over Washington … Forward Zach Parise notched two assists for the Wild … Philadelphia defenseman Michael Del Zotto scored a goal and was a plus-3 in a 3-1 win over St. Louis … Flyers defenseman Luke Schenn notched two assists as did teammate Matt Read … Flames goaltender Karri Ramo stopped 34 of 27 Boston shots on goal in a win 4-3 shootout win over the Bruins … Flames defensemen Kris Russell and Dennis Wideman each notched two assists in the win … Flames forwards Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan and Jiri Hudler each scored …  Boston forwards Loui Eriksson and Brad Marchand both scored goals for the Bruins … Vancouver forward Radim Vrbata scored a goal in his return to Arizona with the Canucks … Vancouver forward Chris Higgins also scored … Forward Tye McGinn notched a goal for the Coyotes … Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty scored a goal against the Kings in a 4-3 shootout loss … Defenseman Tom Gilbert also scored … Forward Marian Gaborik scored two goals for LA and teammate Jeff Carter scored one. Each scored in the shootout. Gaborik's second goal in regulation tied the game at 3-3 with 45.0 seconds left.

Did You Know?: Anze Kopitar was 0-for-7 in shootouts in 2014-15 before this winner against the Canadiens?

Dishonorable Mention: The Predators have now lost five straight games … It was goaltender Pekka Rinne’s fourth straight loss … Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen was yanked after allowing three goals on 14 Florida shots on goal … Blues forwards Alex Steen, T.J. Oshie and David Backes were each a minus-3 as was defenseman Alex Pietrangelo ... Washington's Alex Ovechkin missed his first game of the season with a lower body injury. The Caps say he is day-to-day. 

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