Tarasenko's hat trick powers Blues

TARASENKO LEADS BLUES TO SIXTH STRAIGHT HOME WIN

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THURSDAY'S RESULTS

Home Team in Caps
BOSTON 2, Carolina 1 (SO)
BUFFALO 4, NY Rangers 3
PITTSBURGH 6, Dallas 2
NY Islanders 3, WASHINGTON 0
Philadelphia 3, OTTAWA 2 (OT)
Florida 2, DETROIT 1 (OT)
ST. LOUIS 5, Tampa Bay 4
Edmonton 6, WINNIPEG 3
CHICAGO 4, New Jersey 3 (OT)
Columbus 3, COLORADO 2
Los Angeles 4, ARIZONA 3
Anaheim 3, VANCOUVER 1

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MORE STARS SHINE ON FIRST DAY OF FAN BALLOTING

On the same day the NHL All-Star Fan Vote opened to the public, several players had big performances:
* Sidney Crosby (1-1-2) redirected his own rebound out of midair from behind the Dallas Stars' net to score the first of four consecutive goals for the Pittsburgh Penguins, including three in a span of 1:33. The Penguins are 9-2-1 at home. Crosby leads the NHL with 16 goals in 18 games.
* Jack Eichel (2-0-2) scored the tying and game-winning goals in a span of 1:43 as the Buffalo Sabres improved to 4-1-1 in their past six contests by rallying to defeat the New York Rangers. Eichel has 3-1-4 in two games since returning to the lineup on Tuesday and has at least one point in each of his past seven NHL games dating to March 31 vs. Toronto (4-6-10).
* Connor McDavid (0-3-3) assisted on three of Edmonton Oilers' six goals, including two by Leon Draisaitl (2-1-3), to help Edmonton stretch its road point streak to four games (3-0-1). McDavid extended his point streak to seven games (6-9-15) with his 10th multiple-point performance of the season. He leads the NHL in scoring with 11-23-34 (25 GP).

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DID YOU KNOW?

McDavid has 27-55-82 through the first 70 games of his NHL career (1.17 PPG). The Elias Sports Bureau notes that Wayne Gretzky (41-74-115) and Blair MacDonald(41-42-83) are the only players in franchise history with more points through their first 70 NHL regular-season games.

OVERTIME HEROICS

The Philadelphia Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and Florida Panthers each won in overtime:
* One day after proposing to his longtime girlfriend, Ryanne Breton, Claude Giroux (2-0-2) scored his second goal of the game 40 seconds into overtime to lead the Flyers past the Ottawa Senators for their third consecutive victory. Giroux and Breton grew up in the Ottawa area and celebrated with family on Wednesday.
* Marian Hossa scored at 1:31 of overtime to help Blackhawks extend their home point streak to 12 games (10-0-2), matching their longest such run since Jan. 22-March 6, 2013 (11-0-1). Hossa scored his the 15th regular-season overtime goal of his career; he's third among active players behind Jaromir Jagr (19) and Alex Ovechkin (18).
* Aleksander Barkov scored at 2:04 of overtime to help new coach Tom Rowe earn his first NHL win. Florida is 4-2-1 in its past seven games.

LOOSE PUCKS

Forward Ondrej Kase scored the game-winner, the first goal of his NHL career (8 GP), to lead the Anaheim Ducks to their third straight win. … New Jersey Devils forward Travis Zajac (3-0-3) had the second hat trick of his NHL career. … Forward Jordan Nolan (2-0-2) had the first multigoal game of his NHL career to power the Los Angeles Kings to their sixth victory in seven games. … Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves to help the New York Islanders win third consecutive game. … Forward David Pastrnak provided the primary assist on the game-tying goal with 31.5 seconds left in regulation and scored the decisive goal in the shootout to help the Boston Bruins to a 2-1 comeback victory. … The Columbus Blue Jackets improved to 10-2-3 (23 points) since the start of November and moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division. … Winnipeg Jets rookie Patrik Laine (2-0-2) is second in the NHL with 15 goals. …Oilers forward Milan Lucic (0-2-2) extended his point streak to six games (2-8-10). … Panthers forward Jaromir Jagr skated in the 1,653rd game of his NHL career, passingMark Recchi (1,652) for fourth on the all-time list. … Colorado Avalanche forward Samuel Henley scored in his NHL debut,. … Nashville Predators goaltender Pekka Rinne, Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherovand Oilers center Connor McDavidwere named the NHL's Three Stars for the month of November. … Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski was named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for November. … The Senators honored the Canadian Football League's Ottawa Redblacks, who recently won the 104th Grey Cup.

SNEAK PEEK AT FRIDAY'S ACTION

All Times Eastern
Minnesota @ Calgary, 9 p.m., SNW, FS-WI, FS-N+
Montreal @ San Jose, 10:30 p.m., CSN-CA, SNE, RDS