NHL Three Stars: Kane, Panarin power Chicago; Gibson slows Stars

No. 1 Star: Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks  

The star winger continued to pad his NHL scoring lead with three goals and one assist in a 6-4 win over the Boston Bruins. With the outburst, Kane reached 100 points with 43 goals and 57 assists. Last season no NHL player reached 100 points. 

No. 2 Star: Artemi Panarin, Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago’s rookie sniper fired a goal and added three assists for his second straight four-point game. Panarin had just two points in his prior nine games. He is the first Blackhawks rookie to post consecutive four-point games.

No. 3 Star: John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks

The young Ducks netminder helped shut down the NHL’s best offense, stopping 24 of 25 Dallas Stars shots on goal in a 3-1 win. With the victory the Ducks moved into first-place in the Pacific Division with 98 points, one more than the second-place Los Angeles Kings. Both teams have four games left. 

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Honorable Mention: Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Matt Murray stopped 28 of 30 shots on goal in his team’s 6-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers … Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang notched two assists as did forward Matt Cullen … Penguins forward Eric Fehr scored two goals … Blackhawks forward Artem Anisimov scored a goal and notched two assists … Chicago captain Jonathan Toews scored his 26th goal of the season … Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook notched two assists … Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron scored two goals and added an assist. Teammate Brad Marchand scored his 36th goal and added an assist … St. Louis Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko notched two assists in a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche … St. Louis defenseman Alex Pietrangelo scored a goal and added an assist as did forwards David Backes and Troy Brouwer … Blues defenseman Colton Parayko scored a goal … Winnipeg Jets goaltender Ondrej Pavelec stopped 28 of 29 shots on goal in a 5-1 win over the Minnesota Wild … Jets forward Mark Scheifele scored his 27th goal of the season … Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers and defenseman Jacob Trouba both notched two assists … Anaheim Ducks forward Ryan Kesler scored his 19th and 20th goals of the season … Ducks forward Nate Thompson scored his third goal of the year. 

Did You Know? Anaheim Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano played in his 700th straight NHL game to start his career. He is the second player in NHL history to play 700 consecutive games to start a career, Doug Jarvis (964 straight) being the other. 

Dishonorable Mention: Flyers goaltender Steve Mason allowed five goals on 38 shots on goal … The Blackhawks allowed 46 shots on goal to the Bruins … Boston goaltender Tuukka Rask was pulled after allowed four goals on 22 shots on goal … Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov was pulled after allowing 11 of 14 shots on goal … The Minnesota Wild could have clinched a playoff berth if they hadn’t lost to the Jets … Dallas captain Jamie Benn was a minus-3.

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