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The Buzzer: Big night for stars like Crosby, Ovechkin (also Dallas Stars)

Flyers-Penguins stream

PITTSBURGH, PA - OCTOBER 29: Sidney Crosby #87 of the Pittsburgh Penguins handles the puck against Claude Giroux #28 of the Philadelphia Flyers at PPG PAINTS Arena on October 29, 2019 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

Three Stars

1. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

Ovechkin provided some potential bulletin board material for the Maple Leafs before the game, but instead he essentially called his shot.

The star sniper generated two goals (including the overtime-winner) and two assists, firing 10 shots on goal. He now has 11 goals and 18 points in 14 games to start the 2019-20 season strong. Oh yeah, he also logged a ridiculous 12:38 TOI on the power play on Tuesday, part of a wild game that included a couple controversial Tom Wilson hits.

Ovi wasn’t the only player who had a strong night in that one. John Carlson scored two goals to reach 23 points. Auston Matthews wasn’t far behind Ovechkin with two goals and one assist. Nicklas Backstrom collected three assists.

2. Alexander Radulov, Dallas Stars

Dallas came into Tuesday’s game against the Wild with a -10 goal differential in the third period of games. They brought that down to a more respectable -5 on Tuesday as part of a thunderous comeback. Late in the second, the Wild went up 3-0, only for the Stars to score six unanswered goals to stun Minnesota 6-3.

Radulov began that rally with Dallas’ first goal, and ended up generating a hat trick plus an assist. He simply wouldn’t be denied, firing 10 SOG. If this was about Minnesota sitting on a lead in any way, Dallas showed that it’s probably not the best way to put them away.

Ovechkin gets the slight nod because Radulov’s third goal came on an empty-netter. Radulov’s second was the GWG, so they had clinchers in common on Tuesday.

3. Nick Bonino, Nashville Predators

The Predators scored three goals on Tuesday, and Bonino generated all of them for a natural hat trick. No Bones about it, that’s an impressive night.

(Sorry ... ish.)

Other players like Sidney Crosby deserve a mention (more on that in a moment), but a natural hatty is really something. Considering that Bonino and Crosby were teammates, and Bonino’s goals came from the “dirty areas” of the ice, so 87 probably wouldn’t be so unhappy.

Bonino wasn’t far from the other top two in SOG, either, with nine on his way to that hat trick. This continues a strong start to 2019-20 for Bonino, who now has 10 points in 12 games.

Honorable mentions


  • Crosby and the Penguins absolutely feasted on an overmatched Flyers team, and that meant filling up the scoresheet. Crosby scored a goal and two assists for three points, matched by Dominik Simon and Dominik Kahun. Bonus points to Kahun, who managed his goal and two assists in just 8:49 TOI.
  • Again, Matthews and Backstrom had three-point nights of their own.
  • Rocco Grimaldi got assists on all three of Bonino’s goal. Bones and Grimaldi sounds like it could be a buddy cop show. Just a lot to like, folks.
  • Josh Mahura of the Ducks collected three assists as the Ducks won a high-scoring game against the Jets 7-4. Mahura’s the second Ducks rookie to generate three points in a game, and notched quite a few other milestones.

Highlight of the Night

How could it be anything but Andrei Svechnikov scoring a lacrosse-style goal? More on that here.

Another Storm Surge

A Halloween-themed one. Maybe they’d be called nerds instead of jerks this time, to get a candy theme going?

Factoids


  • Cam Fowler scored his 61st goal, passing Scott Niedermayer for the most of any defenseman in Ducks history.
  • Ovechkin finished the night with 669 career regular-season goals. According to NHL PR, that puts Ovechkin ahead of Luc Robitaille for most as a player listed as a LW. He’s also now ranked 12th all-time in goals scored, in general. Depending upon how his season goes, Ovechkin could really climb the ranks in 2019-20, or soon after.

8. Mark Messier - 694
9. Steve Yzerman - 692
10. Mario Lemieux - 690
11. Teemu Selanne - 684
12. Ovechkin - 669


  • Ovechkin’s teammate Carlson scored two goals to finish the night with 23 points on the season, and in October. Only one defenseman’s had a better October in NHL history: Al MacInnis in 1990, according to NHL PR.
  • The Red Wings ended an eight-game losing streak by beating the Oilers.

Scores

BOS 5 - SJS 1
WSH 4 - TOR 3 (OT)
PIT 7 - PHI 1
CAR 2 - CGY 1
NYR 4 - TBL 1
DET 3 - EDM 1
NSH 3 - CHI 0
DAL 6 - MIN 3
ANA 7 - WPG 4

MORE:
Pro Hockey Talk’s Stanley Cup picks.
Your 2019-20 NHL on NBC TV schedule

James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.