NHL Three Stars of the Week: Matthews, Oettinger, Lafrenière

Auston Matthews, Jake Oettinger and Alexis Lafrenière are the NHL’s Three Stars of the Week for the week ending Oct. 11, the league announced Monday.

Matthews gets the top spot after leading the league with three goals and six assists for nine points in three games. He opened and closed the week with four-point nights, and the Maple Leafs took five of a possible six standings points.

The Toronto captain started it on Oct. 6 with a goal and three assists as the Leafs rallied from a 3-0 hole to beat Nashville 5-4. He finished that one with an overtime winner, the 15th of his career and the second-most in franchise history.

Matthews added an assist in a 4-3 shootout loss to Vegas on Oct. 8. Then came Saturday against Colorado, where he scored twice and added two assists in a 6-3 win. It was his 19th career four-point game.

Here is the empty-netter that pushed him to nine points on the week:

Oettinger earned the second star by allowing one goal on 60 shots in three starts for Dallas. That works out to a 0.33 goals-against average and a .983 save percentage, and he went 2-0-1.

He shut out San Jose 5-0 on Oct. 5, then blanked Buffalo 4-0 on Oct. 8. It was the second time in his career he has posted back-to-back shutouts. He stretched the streak to 188:52 on Oct. 10 against Pittsburgh, a run that ranks third in Stars franchise history, though Dallas lost that game 2-1 in a shootout.

Lafrenière takes the third star after scoring five goals in three games, tied for the league lead. His third career hat trick came in a 5-2 win over the Islanders on Oct. 6, and he later added a goal and an assist in the Rangers’ 6-2 win over Vancouver, their first game without Igor Shesterkin.

New York sits at 5-2-0 and Lafrenière leads the team with five goals and eight points. At 25, he is already up to 121 career goals.

Toronto is 3-2-1, Dallas is 2-2-1, and the Rangers have 10 points through seven games.