NHL Three Stars: Tarasenko, Zajac hat tricks; Jack's back; Sid's crazy goal

No. 1 Star: Vladimir Tarasenko, St. Louis Blues

It was a good night for Tarasenko. He had a four points which included the third hat trick of his career. Tarasenko also gets credit for the best quote of the night. From Lou Korac of NHL.com: “Tarasenko didn’t know the hats thrown on the ice belong to him now: ‘(Do) I get (them) after?'”

No. 2 Star: Jack Eichel, Buffalo Sabres

The New York Rangers and Buffalo Sabres went goal for goal. The Rangers were leading 3-2 in the third when Eichel took over in his second game back from injury. He scored the game tying and eventual game winning goal for the Sabres.

No. 3 Star: Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

Tied at 2-2 with 21.5 seconds left in the second period, Sidney Crosby scored a ridiculous goal from behind the net that he banked off Antti Niemi. It was perfection and only one of his three points in the evening.

Honorable Mention: The St. Louis Blues were up 4-1 on the Tampa Bay Lightning and allowed Tampa to get within a goal twice before finally winning the game 5-4. Kevin Shattenkirk had a four point game. Alexander Steen returned to the lineup with three assists. Cedric Pacquette had two goals and a team-high seven hits for the LIghtning … Tom Rowe earned his first win behind the Florida Panthers bench in the team’s overtime victory against the Detroit Red Wings. Aleksander Barkov scored the OT goal. Much respect to Henrik Zetterberg for this Pavel Datsyuk-esque backhand goal:

… The Penguins scored three goals in 1:33 of the third to ice the game at 6-2 against the Dallas Stars. Marc-Andre Fleury made 33 saves in his seventh win of the season … The Rangers power play was 2-for-2 and the Sabres PP was 1-for-2 … Claude Giroux had a good 24 hours. He got engaged on Wednesday. On Thursday he started the Philadelphia Flyers comeback against the Ottawa Senators and then won it in overtime with a classic Giroux snipe:

… Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers got the best of the Winnipeg Jets. McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Mark Letestu skated away with three points each in the Oilers 6-3 win. Patrik Laine scored two nearly identical power play goals and celebrated one with an incredible flourish. Bryan Little scored his first goal of the season 35 seconds in to the first period. Edmonton’s power play was 3 for 4 and Winnipeg’s was 2 for 4 … The third goal of Travis Zajac’s hat trick forced the New Jersey Devils and Chicago Blackhawks to overtime. Mike Cammalleri rang a shot off the post in extra time and Chicago took it the other way. Who else but Marian Hossa would get the game winner:

… With 32 seconds left in the game, Torey Krug tied the game with the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes and Boston Bruins went to the shootout where Boston won two shooters to one … Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves to shut out the Washington Capitals … Boone Jenner registered the game winner on a blind pass by Cam Atkinson:

… Jordan Nolan earned the first two-goal game of his career in the Los Angeles Kings 4-3 win over the Arizona Coyotes. Trevor Lewis registered the game winner with less than five minutes to go. Earlier in the game Martin Hanzal scored two power play goals … The Anaheim Ducks beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-1. Ondrej Kase earned his first NHL goal for the Ducks in a strange way:

Did You Know?

Dishonorable Mention: Andrei Vasilevskiy was pulled after allowing 4 goals on 16 shots … Peter Budaj let in 2 goals in 20 minutes of play. He was replaced by Jeff Zatkoff who got the win with 25 of 26 saves … Jimmy Vesey boo’ed every time he touched the puck in Buffalo. This goal against is very unbecoming of King Henrik Lundqvist:

… Fredrik Claesson of the Ottawa Senators left the game with an injury and did not return … Justin Abdelkader played only 3:08 before leaving the game with a lower body injury … Connor Hellebuyck was pulled after allowed 6 goals on 29 shots … Elias Lindholm left the game and did not return with a lower body injury … Justin Williams was destroyed by Cal Clutterbuck but would complete the game … Devon Setoguchi was scratched for the Kings.

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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter! Follow @MsJenNeale_PD.