NHL Three Stars: Ovechkin tricks Blues; Devils rally over Leafs

No. 1 Star: Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

The sniper’s hat trick gives him the most hat tricks among active players (16) as the Capitals held off the St. Louis Blues, 4-3.

No. 2 Star: Michael Cammalleri, New Jersey Devils

The winger led a Devils’ rally from a 3-0 deficit with a goal and three assists. Jersey won in the shootout, 5-4.

No. 3 Star: Chad Johnson, Calgary Flames

Another strong performance from the Flames’ netminder, as his 34 saves led Calgary over the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-0. The Flames have won four of six.

Honorable Mention: Sidney Crosby had two goals, an assist and a sorta fight against Ryan McDonagh in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 6-1 rout of the New York Rangers. Crosby now has 14 goals. … Rick Nash scored his ninth for the Rangers. … The Tampa Bay Lightning scored three goals in the third period, including Nikita Kucherov’s 10th of the season, to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-2. … Mikko Koivu and Zach Parise had goals in the Minnesota Wild’s 3-1 win over the Jets. … The Nashville Predators rallied with three goals in the third to defeat the Dallas Stars, 5-2. Slumping Filip Forsberg and Ryan Johansen both scored goals. Pekka Rinne made 33 saves. … Logan Couture and Joel Ward had the goals in the San Jose Sharks’ 2-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. … Auston Matthews snapped a 13-game goal-less streak with two tallies against the Devils. … Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice in the Blues’ rally. … Wild game between the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers. The Oil scored four third-period goals to win, 6-3, as Milan Lucic had a goal and three assists and Connor McDavid had a goal and two assists. Jordan Eberle scored twice. Rene Bourque had two goals in the loss. … Sven Baertschi and Bo Horvat had a goal and two assists in the Vancouver Canucks’ 4-1 win over Mike Smith and the Arizona Coyotes. … The Los Angeles Kings scored THREE GOALS IN 44 SECONDS in the third period to put away the New York Islanders, 4-2. Dwight King had two goals. … Gustav Nyquist scored a goal and had another in the shootout in the Detroit Red Wings’ 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres. But look at this wicked deke by Thomas Vanek. Just look at it!

Did You Know? New Jersey, which is 7-0-1 at home, last started a season without a regulation loss at home through eight games in 1990-91 (7-0-1). (NHL)

Dishonorable Mention: The Winnipeg Jets could manage just 16 shots on goal. … Morgan Rielly was a minus-3. … Jimmy Vesey was a minus-3. … Henrik Lundqvist was pulled after 32:57 after giving up four goals. … Jonathan Toews was injured in the Blackhawks’ loss. … Oliver Ekman-Larsson had a terrible turnover that led to a Vancouver goal.