Sunday, January 9, 2011

Thursday's Three Stars: Miller blanks SJ; LaBarbera's emergency win

No. 1 Star: Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres

Miller was a perfect 36-for-36 on shots, making a dozen spectacular saves in the Sabres' 3-0 shutout win at the San Jose Sharks. Luke Adam, Jochen Hecht and Thomas Vanek had the goals in support of Miller, getting his third shutout of the season.

No. 2 Star: Danny Briere, Philadelphia Flyers

The old "better lucky than good" adage applied to Briere and Scott Hartnell, who both had two goals apiece in the Flyers' 4-2 win over the hapless New Jersey Devils. Briere gets the nod here for his two third-period tallies to take the lead and ice the game. His first goal came off a deflected pass and his second went in off the skate of Devils defenseman Colin White. Briere now has 20 goals on the season.

No. 3 Star: Jason LaBarbera, Phoenix Coyotes

With Ilya Bryzgalov tending to a family medical issue, LaBarbera stepped in for an emergency start in Denver and backstopped the Coyotes to a 2-0 victory. He made 34 saves for his second shutout in three starts. Taylor Pyatt had both goals.

Honorable mention: Carey Price made 31 saves and struck a pose after winning the shootout, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Sidney Crosby-less Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1. Benoit Pouliot had a goal and a dazzling game-winner in the shootout. ... Speaking of shootouts, the Toronto Maple Leafs and St. Louis Blues needed an extra round to determine winner (after Mikhail Grabovski's sick goal), as Tyler Bozak's goal and Patrik Berglund's miss gave the Leafs a 6-5 shootout win. Phil Kessel had two goals in regulation. Jonas Gustavsson stopped 39 shots including six during OT. ... Strong road game for the Minnesota Wild, who improved to 6-0 in franchise history for games played in Boston with a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins. Cal Clutterbuck had the game-winning goal off a Marc Savard turnover and assisted on Mikko Koivu's empty netter. Jose Theodore stopped 35 shots. ... The Edmonton Oilers got goals from Gilbert Brule and Dustin Penner, holding off the New York Islanders for a 2-1 win behind 30 saves by Devan Dubnyk. The win snapped a 7-game losing streak for the Oil. ... Finally, the Nashville Predators scored five unanswered goals in their 5-2 win at the Los Angeles Kings. Patric Hornqvist scored twice, Colin Wilson (1 goal, 2 assists) and Sergei Kostitsyn scored their 10th goals of the season and Marek Svatos had his first as a Predator. 

Did you know? The Buffalo win gave Coach Lindy Ruff win No. 500. Ruff became the 16th NHL coach with 500 wins and joined Montreal's Toe Blake as the only ones in the club who got all their wins with one team. (AP)

Dishonorable mention: The Devils played without captain Jamie Langenbrunner, who is awaiting a trade from the team. No distractions there for the Devils in that game, huh? ... White and Henrik Tallinder were both a minus-3 for the Devils. ... Goalie Nathan Lawson was pulled for the Isles after the second goal, leading to Kevin Poulin's NHL debut. ... Jaroslav Halak was pulled for the second time this season after giving up four goals on 19 shots.... Finally, we're guessing Francis Bouillon probably wants this one back against Wayne Simmonds. Good scrap, though:

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Thursday-s-Three-Stars-Miller-blanks-SJ-LaBarb?urn=nhl-304525

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