Eurolanche

Duchene Named NHL's Third Star of Nov.

Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene has been named the NHL third star for the month of November, the league announced on Tuesday.

Duchene had a November to remember as he led all NHL players with 11 goals in the month. His 11 tallies broke the Avalanche record for goals in November (10) set by Claude Lemieux in 1995, and he was the first Colorado player to score 11 times in a single month since Milan Hejduk had 12 in March 2003. Quebec's Marc Tardif holds the franchise record for goals in November with 15 in 1981.

Overall, Duchene finished the 11th month of the year with 20 points (11 goals and nine assists) in 14 contests, setting a career high for points in a single month. He was the first Avs player to record 20 points in November since Joe Sakic (22) in 2000-01 and the first to tally 20 points in any month since Paul Stastny in March 2010.

He was named the NHL first star of the week for his play from Nov. 9-15 after leading the league with four goals and eight points in three games, which included notching multi-point performances in each outing. It was Duchene's second career first star honor and the fourth time he was part of the NHL weekly "Three Stars."

The No. 3 overall draft pick of the Avalanche in 2009, Duchene scored his 138th career goal this past Saturday against Winnipeg, tying Adam Deadmarsh for 11th place on the franchise's all-time goals list. He also had two assists in the contest to bring his career total to 202, one behind Adam Foote (203) for 12th place in franchise history.

With a pair of goals on Nov. 19 at Pittsburgh, Duchene passed Mats Sundin (135 goals and 334 points) for 11th place on the franchise's scoring list with 335 points and passed the Hockey Hall of Famer for 12th place in goals with 136.

Duchene, 24, now has 340 points (138 goals and 202 assists) in 443 games. He picked up his 200th career assist on Nov. 21 at Washington, becoming the 13th player in franchise history to record 200 helpers.

This is Duchene's first career monthly honor and just the fourth time the Avalanche has had a player in the NHL "Three Stars" of the month. Chris Stewart was the last Colorado player to receive a monthly honor, as he was named the third star in October 2010.

Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane was chosen as the NHL first star for the month of November while Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby was named the second star.

-- Avalanche Press Release --