No. 1 Star: Brian Boucher, Philadelphia Flyers
The veteran settled the Flyers down on the road with 15 first-period saves and 11 more in the final 20 minutes, as Philly won Game 3 at the Buffalo Sabres, 4-2. Boucher made 35 saves in his first playoff start since last May 10.
No. 2 Star: Tyler Kennedy, Pittsburgh Penguins
Just 31 seconds after Marty St. Louis tied the game with a power-play goal, his second of the night, Kennedy popped home a rebound for his first of the playoffs, leading the Penguins to a 3-2 win. Max Talbot and Arron Asham had the other goals, as Pittsburgh took a 2-1 series lead.
No. 3 Star: Niklas Kronwall, Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit banger had a secondary assist on Ruslan Salei's goal 1:57 into the game and the primary helper on Drew Miller's goal at 2:41 of the first, helping the Wings to a 4-2 win in Game 3 at the Phoenix Coyotes. Kronwall was a plus-3 with four hits. Detroit's up 3-0 in the series.
Honorable mention: Tim Thomas made 34 saves for the Bruins, while David Krejci and Nathan Horton (with the first postseason goal of this career) scored first-period goals as the Bruins won Game 3, 4-2, to cut the Montreal Canadiens' series lead to 2-1. Patrice Bergeron was a plus-3 and had two assists. … Andrei Kostitsyn and Tomas Plekanec had the Habs goals; Michael Cammalleri had two assists. … Jeff Carter (on the power play), Danny Briere, Nikolay Zherdev and Kimmo Tomonen (empty netter) had the Flyers goals. … Marc-Andre Gragnani had two assists for the Sabres. … Ray Whitney and David Schlemko had power-play goals for Phoenix. … Johan Franzen scored a critical breakaway goal just 45 seconds into the third period. … Marc-Andre Fleury made 25 saves.
Did you know? The Canadiens have lost each of their last two playoff series in which they have won the first two games on the road. (AP)
Dishonorable mention: Chris Kunitz and Steve Downie will be hearing from the NHL for their elbow and charge in Game 3, respectively. … Pittsburgh was 0 for 2 on the power play, dropping to 0 for 15 for the series. … Ilya Bryzgalov had another sub-standard night, giving up four goals to the Wings. … Benoit Pouliot came in hard on Johnny Boychuk with a hit to the upper body, earning a charging minor and then five for fighting Andrew Ference. … Finally, Carey Price didn't officially pick up an assist on this Rich Peverley goal, but … well …
Conn Smythe Watch: 1. Daniel Sedin, Vancouver Canucks; 2. Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings; 3. Roberto Luongo, Vancouver Canucks; 4. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens; 5. Michael Neuvirth, Washington Capitals; 6. Shea Weber, Nashville Predators; 7. Mike Fisher, Nashville Predators; 8. Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings; 9. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals; 10. Johan Franzen, Detroit Red Wings