Eurolanche

O'Reilly named Third star of the week

The NHL announced Monday that Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O'Reilly has been named the third star in the league's "Three Stars" for the week ending March 29.

O'Reilly led the NHL with seven assists and eight points last week, recording three multi-point games. He also leads Avalanche forwards in scoring in March with 16 points (four goals, 12 assists)—a career best.

The 24-year-old center picked up two assists in a 3-2 loss to the Calgary Flames in Alberta last Monday. He then posted one goal and two assists for his second multi-point night of the recent three-game Canadian road swing, in a 4-3 loss on Wednesday to the Edmonton Oilers.

O'Reilly went on to have his third multi-point night of the trip  when he assisted on goals by Alex Tanguay and Gabriel Landeskog in a 4-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

The Clinton, Ontario native wrapped up his productive week with a helper on Tyson Barrie's goal in a 5-3 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

O'Reilly is in the midst of a seven-game point streak (four goals, eight assists), tying his career high set from Oct. 12-24, 2009. He has 23 points (four goals, 19 assists) in his last 20 games and leads the team in assists (38) and short-handed points (2) and is third in total points (52) and power-play points (12).

He is also having an outstandng stretch in the faceoff circle. He has won 57.2 percent of his draws in the last 20 games and is ranked 28th in the NHL in faceoff win percentage (52.9 percent). He also ranks second in the league in takeaways (88).

O'Reilly recently hit a career milestone, playing in his 400th NHL game on Feb. 12 against the New York Rangers. He has 243 points (87 goals, 156 assists) in 420 career games.

This is the second time in O'Reilly's career that he has been named to the NHL's Three Stars of the Week as he previously was named to the list on Dec. 5, 2011. It is also the third such honor for the Avalanche this season, as goaltender Semyon Varlamov was named the NHL's second star on both Jan. 12 and March 9.

O'Reilly is the first Colorado forward to be honored since Matt Duchene was named third star on Dec, 23, 2013.

Minnesota Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk was named the first star while Columbus Blue Jackets forward Cam Atkinson was named the second star.

-- Colorado Avalanche Press Release --