Three Stars
1. Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs. For the second game in a row the Maple Leafs absolutely humiliated the Vancouver Canucks in a 5-1 win. That brings the two-game total this week to a 12-4 margin, and Matthews was at the center of a lot of it. He scored two more goals on Saturday to extend his current goal streak to seven consecutive games, while also taking over the league lead with 10 goals in 11 games.
2. Jordan Eberle, New York Islanders. The Islanders used a pair of third period goals to snap a five-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Eberle scored the Islanders’ first two goals of the game to continue his recent mastery of the Penguins. Since joining the Islanders prior to the 2017-18 season Eberle has played 15 games against the Penguins, playoffs included, and has now scored 10 goals in those games.
3. Jakob Chychrun, Arizona Coyotes. Thanks to their 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (in a game that was part of the many schedule changes recently) the Coyotes won back-to-back games for the first time this season. Chychrun was quite literally the difference in the game with a pair of goals in more than 22 minutes of ice-time to help lead the way.
Other notable performances from Saturday
• Josh Anderson scored his eighth goal of the season for the Montreal Canadiens after scoring just one goal in 26 games a year ago. That goal, as well as a Jeff Petry goal and a big game from Jake Allen in net helped lead the Canadiens to a 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
• Ryan Miller allowed a goal 11 seconds into the game and then stopped every shot after that to help the Anaheim Ducks get a 2-1 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks.
• Mikael Backlund had three points and six other Flames had at least two points as they were 6-4 winners over the Edmonton Oilers in the first Battle Of Alberta of the season.
Highlights Of The Day
Matthews makes it look easy for his first goal of the game against the Canucks.
Clayton Keller uses his speed to help lift the Coyotes to their win over the Blues.
Sam Bennett scores the goal for the Calgary Flames but the pass is the real highlight of the play here.
Scores
Montreal Canadiens 2, Ottawa Senators 1
Arizona Coyotes 3, St. Louis Blues 1
New York Islanders 4, Pittsburgh Penguins 3
Toronto Maple Leafs 5, Vancouver Canucks 1
Anaheim Ducks 2, San Jose Sharks 1 (SO)
Calgary Flames 6, Edmonton Oilers 4
Arizona Coyotes vs. Minnesota Wild (postponed)
Colorado Avalanche vs. St. Louis Blues (postponed)
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.