No. 1 Star: Thomas Vanek, Buffalo Sabres
Vanek's hat trick gave the Sabres a huge home victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4-2. He scored on a power-play deflection in the first, on a backhander in front of Dwayne Roloson in the second and with a quasi-empty netter scored with Roloson scrambling back to the crease with 14 seconds left. It was his first trick since last April 10.
No. 2 Star: Jason Spezza, Ottawa Senators
Spezza's 4-point night propelled the Senators to a 5-2 win over the staggering Philadelphia Flyers. Spezza had primary helpers on power-play goals by Nick Foligno and Ryan Shannon and a secondary assist on Bobby Butler's tiebreaking goal in the second. Then, Spezza scored his 20th of the season on the power play in the third.
No. 3 Star: Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
With due respect to the goalies who pitched shutouts on Tuesday night — and to Corey Crawford, who was outstanding on the other end of the rink — Price's 42-save performance in the Canadiens' 2-1 OT victory over the Chicago Blackhawks deserved a star. It was his 71st game, setting a new single-season record for the Habs; his 37 wins are the most since Ken Dryden in 1977-78.
Honorable mention: Kari Lehtonen made 23 saves for his 17th career shutout as the Dallas Stars blanked the Columbus Blue Jackets, 3-0. Steve Ott's power-play goal stood up until empty-netters by Loui Eriksson and Brendan Morrow iced it. The Stars moved to within two points of the final playoff spot in the West. … Devan Dubnyk stopped all 26 shots he faced in the Edmonton Oilers' 2-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks. Ryan Jones and Magnus Paajarvi had the goals; it was the Oilers' second straight win against the President's Trophy winners. … The Pittsburgh Penguins remained alive for the division title with a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils. Pascal Dupuis had two goals and Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist. … Mike Richards scored both of the Flyers' goals. … David Backes scored goal No. 30 and Kevin Shattenkirk scored the game-winner against his old mates in a 3-1 St. Louis Blues' win over the Colorado Avalanche. … James Reimer made 39 saves to earn a regulation tie, but Mike Knuble's shootout goal gave the Washington Capitals a 3-2 win and the conference lead. Alex Ovechkin scored goal No. 31 on the season and No. 300 in his career. … The Nashville Predators scored the first four goals of the game, overpowering the Atlanta Thrashers in a 6-3 victory. Jordin Tootoo and Sergei Kostitsyn each had two goals and an assist. … Finally, give Price credit for winning this celebration bump battle with P.K. Subban after the rookie's OT game-winner:
Did you know? Nine Avalanche players missed the game due to injuries, bringing the season total of man-games lost to a team-record 442. (AP)
Dishonorable mention: The Leafs were eliminated from playoff contention. Again. … Raffi Torres was kicked out the Canucks' game vs. Edmonton for a head-shot on Jordan Eberle. … Travis Zajac and Ilya Kovalchuk were minus-3 for the Devils. … Ben Maxwell, Tim Stapleton, Anthony Stewart, Mark Stuart and Andrey Zubarev were all minus-3 for the Thrashers. … Chris Neil had 17 penalty minutes for a fight, an instigator and a misconduct in the first period. … Finally, a line brawl (in name only) in St. Louis between the Blues and Avs resulted in five misconducts and 72 PIM total … and one Barret Jackman punching Ryan Stoa while he was on his back: