No. 1 Star: Joffrey Lupul, Toronto Maple Leafs
Lupul's second 4-point night of the season helped propel the Leafs to a 7-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lupul answered Vinny Lecavalier's goal in the first period with his 18th of the season. He then assisted on goals by Carl Gunnarsson, Mikhail Grabrovski and Phil Kessel. Darryl Boyce had the game-winner with his first of the season.
No. 2 Star: Drew Stafford, Buffalo Sabres
The Sabres forward scored a tie-breaking goal at 14:34 of the third period and then assisted on Nathan Gerbe's insurance goal that ended up the game-winner in Buffalo's 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Stafford added a primary assist on Jordan Leopold's second-period goal. Stafford was a plus-3.
No. 3 Star: Jaroslav Halak, St. Louis Blues
The Blues keeper stopped 34 of 35 shots in a 4-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes. Halak made 16 saves in the second period alone. Chris Stewart, Jamie Langenbrunner, T.J. Oshie and Patrik Berglund had the goals.
Honorable mention: Nicklas Backstrom assisted on all three Washington Capitals goals, two of them on the power play, as the Caps defeated the Calgary Flames, 3-1, and prevented Jarome Iginla's 500th goal. Alex Ovechkin score his 17th, his seventh goal in seven games. Tomas Vokoun stopped 18 shots. … Jiri Hudler scored twice, Valtteri Filppula and Henrik Zetterberg had three points, and Johan Franzen scored the eventual game-winner in the Detroit Red Wings' 5-4 victory over the Dallas Stars. Michael Ryder scored two goals and added an assist in the loss. … Taylor Hall scored his 12th. … Radim Vrbata scored his 19th. … Steven Stamkos scored his NHL-leading 27th goal. … Special mention to the Leafs' penalty kill, as the worst-in-the-League group killed all four power plays it faced. … Finally, the New York Islanders defeated the Carolina Hurricanes in the shootout, 4-3, as Kyle Okposo sent the game into overtime with a goal at 18:30 of the third period. Matt Moulson opened the scoring with this 18th. The shootout featured two moves that goalies really should know are coming at this point: Frans Nielsen's backhander ...
And Jussi Jokinen with the Forsberg move:
Did you know? There was only one penalty called in the Detroit/Dallas game: Todd Bertuzzi for holding the stick 15 seconds in the game.
Dishonorable mention: Mathieu Garon was pulled after giving up four goals on 21 shots; Dwayne Roloson gave up three on 21 shots after replacing him. … Steve Downie earned 20 minutes in penalties with five minors and a 10-minute misconduct. … Josh Green, called up to replace the injured Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, was a minus-4 for Edmonton. ... This elbow on Backstrom by Rene Bourque should get the NHL's attention.