No. 1 Star: Johnny Gaudreau, Calgary Flames
The young star scored a natural hat trick to lead the Flames to a comeback overtime victory against the Kings. His final two goals game within 1:13 of each other, with the third sending the game into OT.
No. 2 Star: Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
Holtby was downright spectacular for the Caps in their 2-1 win over Ottawa. Just one of many of examples of Holtby’s stellar effort comes on a save of this Clarke MacArthur shot.
No. 3 Star: Ryan Kesler, Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks needed only 58-seconds in the overtime frame to get one past Antti Niemi. THIS is why Anaheim went out and got Kesler:
Honorable Mention: Mark Giordano is credited with the 4-3 OT game winner for Calgary …
… The match between the Penguins and Panthers went to the seventh round of the shoot-out where Aleksander Barkov scored an unreal one-handed goal on Marc-Andre Fleury for the win … Before Barkov’s goal, Roberto Luongo stones Chris Kunitz …
… Congrats to San Jose’s Melker Karlsson and Anaheim’s Rickard Rakell for scoring their first NHL goals tonight … Cam Fowler brought his dangle bells for Christmas …
Did You Know? By beating LA, the Flames snapped an eight-game losing streak.
Dishonorable Mention: John Scott acquainted the butt-end of his stick with Tim Jackman’s face … Pittsburgh’s Blake Comeau left the game midway through the third period with a possible wrist injury … Sergei Bobrovsky gave up four goals to Nashville, and received the hook in favor of Curtis McElhinney, who gave up an additional goal in CBJ’s 5-1 loss … Mike Smith was pulled after allowing four goals against, and was replaced by Devin Dubnyk, who allowed three more goals in Vancouver’s 7-1 spanking of Arizona … Washington still got the win, but Mike Green didn’t make it easy with this turnover …
Jen Neale 