No. 1 Star:
Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins
Completely overshadowing the return of Zbynek Michalek to the Pittsburgh Penguins lineup, Crosby had two goals and two assists to in their 5-0 win over the New York Islanders. And with that we turn the mic over to Bruce Arthur: "In his first game since Jan. 5, Sidney Crosby was Sidney Crosby again. And it was, beginning to end, all hockey could ask for."
No. 2 Star: Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins
In the goaltending duel of the night, Thomas's 33 saves made Andrew Ference's first-period goal stand up, as the Bruins topped the Montreal Canadiens despite Carey Price's 17-save effort. Price had shutouts in his last two starts; Thomas earned his second-straight shutout in this 1-0 win.
No. 3 Star: Stephen Weiss, Florida Panthers
Former Panthers coach Pete DeBoer saw the New Jersey Devils get out to a 3-0 first-period lead over the Panthers. Weiss set up Kris Versteeg's goal at 5:28 of the second, who scored his second of the game 5:12 later; then Weiss scored a shorthanded goal at 9:12 of the third to tie the game; and then he assisted on Tomas Fleischmann's eventual game-winning tally at 17:57 to give Florida an impressive 4-3 comeback win. How impressive? It was their largest regulation comeback victory in franchise history.
Honorable mention: Nicklas Backstrom scored a hard-working third-period goal to break a 2-2 tie, and then assisted on Brooks Laich's eventual game-winner in the Washington Capitals' 4-3 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Lauri Korpikoski scored twice for Phoenix, including a shorthanded penalty shot. … Toby Petersen, Steve Ott, Michael Ryder and Radek Dvorak scored for the Dallas Stars, as they ended a 5-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers — with new owner Tom Gaglardi in the house and dropping the first puck. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins struck again, scoring his eighth for the Oil. … Ilya Kovalchuk, Petr Sykora and Dainius Zubrus scored for the Devils. … The Columbus Blue Jackets have won consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 22/25, as Jeff Carter scored two goals and Curtis Sanford made 27 saves in a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames. Check out the nifty move here by Antoine Vermette on his goal:
Marc-Andre Fleury had the shutout for the Penguins. Brooks Orpik, Evgeni Malkin and Steve Sullivan had the other Pens goals. … Alexei Ponikarovsky had two goals and an assist as the Carolina Hurricanes won again with their coach's fate seemingly in the balance, 4-2 at the shorthanded Philadelphia Flyers. James van Riemsdyk and Matt Read had goals in the loss. Cam Ward made 30 saves. Jeff Skinner scored this absolute beauty with a spin-o-rama flourish:
Did you know? Columbus is 15-4-2 at home against Calgary. Seriously. (AP)
Fight Video: Good scrap between Matt Hendricks and Kyle Chipchura, with the Coyote getting bloodied:
Dishonorable mention: The Oilers are on a 1-5 skid. … The Flyers were missing Jaromir Jagr, Braydon Coburn and Chris Pronger; the first two for injury, the latter for illness … Andy MacDonald, Travis Harmonic and Brian Rolston were a minus-3 for the Islanders. … The Flames held a long postgame meeting, and Brent Sutter said the poor efforts are contagious: "It's like a bad disease that you have to try to fight off and get through and get a cure and get going."