No. 1 Star: Valtteri Filppula, Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings center scored the game-winning goal at 12:32 of the third period on a pretty feed from Pavel Datsyuk and had the secondary assist on Henrik Zetterberg's tying goal in Detroit's 3-1 Game 6 victory against the San Jose Sharks to force a Game 7 on Thursday night.
No. 2 Star: Antti Niemi, San Jose Sharks
The Sharks keeper got some help from his defense — and, in the case of a Dan Cleary shot, his goal post — but he also made 42 saves in the Game 6 loss, including 32 in the first two periods.
No. 3 Star: Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit star scored his 14th point of the playoffs with a cross-ice pass to Filppula for the game-winning goal. He was a plus-2 in 19:25 of ice time, and excelled at both ends of the rink.
Honorable mention: Henrik Zetterberg and Darren Helm had the other Wings' goals. Zetterberg was a plus-2 … Logan Couture scored the Sharks' lone goal. … Jimmy Howard made 24 saves.
Did you know? According to STATS LLC, four NHL teams have rallied from a 3-0 deficit but lost a seventh game. (AP)
Dishonorable mention: After being called "gutless" by Jeremy Roenick on VERSUS, Patrick Marleau responded with zero points, one shot, one shot blocked and one miss. … Jason Demers, Dany Heatley and Marc-Edouard Vlasic were all a minus-2. … While both teams were 0-for-4 on the power play, the Sharks have now gone three games (all losses) without a power-play goal. …
Conn Smythe Watch: 1. Ryan Kesler, Vancouver Canucks; 2. Pavel Datsyuk, Detroit Red Wings; 3. Martin St. Louis, Tampa Bay Lightning; 4. Patrice Bergeron, Boston Bruins; 5. Tim Thomas, Boston Bruins; 6. Ryane Clowe, San Jose Sharks; 7. Joe Thornton, San Jose Sharks; 8. Sean Bergenheim, Tampa Bay Lightning; 9 Vinny Lecavalier, Tampa Bay Lightning; 10 Dwayne Roloson, Tampa Bay Lightning.