No. 1 Star: Joffrey Lupul, Toronto Maple Leafs
Lupul notched his first hat trick since Dec. 12, 2007, peppering a rusty Marty Brodeur to score three times in 7:22 of the second period in the Leafs' 5-3 victory. His first goal was on a rebound of a Mike Komisarek shot. His second was a soft goal that deflected off of Henrik Tallinder and behind Brodeur. The trick was completed on a fire-wagon hockey play that saw Brodeur scrambling back across his crease.
No. 2 Star: Mike Smith, Phoenix Coyotes
The Coyotes keeper stopped 39 Colorado Avalanche shots in Phoenix's 4-1 road win. Smith made 16 saves in the second period alone, with Ryan O'Reilly finally breaking through for the Avs' only goal. Smith also backstopped the Coyotes to a perfect night on the penalty kill (4-for-4).
No. 3 Star: James van Riemsdyk, Philadelphia Flyers
JVR's goal, just 13 seconds after Sean Couturier opened the scoring at 1:43 of the first period, helped send the Flyers to a 3-2 win and Ryan Miller to the bench later in the period. It was van Riemsdyk's fifth of the season. He was a plus-2 for the game. (Game Highlights Here.)
Honorable mention: Radim Vrbata scored twice for the Coyotes. Taylor Pyatt and Lauri Korpikoski had the other tallies. … Scott Hartnell had the Flyers' other goal, the eventual game-winner. Andrej Sekara scored for Buffalo on a fluky goal that went off the end boards. Luke Adam scored for Buffalo on a pass that deflected off of Kimmo Timonen's skate. … Tim Connolly and Phil Kessel had two assists for the Leafs. Mikhail Grabovki had a goal and an assist. … Patrik Elias's power-play goal gave him the Devils' record for that stat, moving ahead of John MacLean. … Adam Larsson picked up his first NHL point. … Jhonas Enroth made 15 saves in relief. … Ilya Bryzgalov made 29 saves. … Jonas Gustavsson made 19 saves. … Brodeur had his struggles, but this save on Kessel was pretty amazing:
Did you know? That loss was the 352nd of Martin Brodeur's career, tying him with the retired Curtis Joseph and Gump Worsley for the most in NHL history. (Gulitti)
Dishonorable mention: Miller was pulled by Buffalo after just 6:23, the third-fastest pulling of his NHL career. … Brodeur, in his first game since Oct. 13, looked very shaky outside of that moment of awesome against Kessel. … Tallinder was a minus-3. … Colorado still only has one win on home ice.