Stanley Cup Playoffs 2012: Tuesday Night's 3 Stars

Phoenix, Nashville and South Beach—these three destinations are not exactly traditional hockey markets.

What they've done in the last week, though, is take a series lead against the Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and the New Jersey Devils. All three of them have won numerous Stanley Cups, and now after Tuesday's game, they're trailing series against teams that have been criticized for not being pure hockey markets.

Things are looking good for the Coyotes, Predators and Panthers, but can they keep it up?

Until then, let's take a look at some of the stars from Tuesday night.

First, the honorable mentions:

Mike Smith: The Coyotes goaltender was not shaken up after his collision with suspended Blackhawks forward, Andrew Shaw, as he stopped 35 pucks in Phoenix's overtime victory.

Zach Parise: The Devils forward had a valiant game in a losing effort. He scored a goal and an assist and fired five shots on goal, but his team blew a three-goal lead and lost at home.

Kevin Klein: Klein's goal came around three minutes after Jiri Hudler tied up the game for the Red Wings. It shifted the momentum back to the Predators side and they were able to seal the victory and take both games in the Motor City.

Kevin Dineen: When the Panthers fell behind 3-0, head coach Kevin Dineen pulled his starting goaltender and put in Scott Clemmensen, who shut down the Devils for the rest of the game and allowed his team to come back and win. 

Rostislav Klesla: Klesla's hot playoff season continued as he added a goal and two assists, figuring in all three Coyote goals in their big overtime win. 

3. Mikkel Boedker

Players are all taught that if they throw the puck in front of the net, good things will happen.

Mikkel Boedker was probably a good hockey student.

With 6:45 left in overtime, Boedker scored from an impossible angle on a shot that bounced off Chicago goalie, Corey Crawford's pads and went into the net somehow, thus giving Phoenix the win and a 2-1 series lead.

Boedker also assisted on Rostislav Klesla's goal in the third period, which evened up the game 1-1 at the time.

2. Scott Clemmensen

Scott Clemmensen's performance on Tuesday night probably won't give him the starting nod in future playoff games, but it definitely makes the Florida Panthers feel confident in their backup goaltender.

After Jose Theodore allowed three goals in the first six minutes of action, Kevin Dineen brought in Clemmensen to take over in net.

Almost immediately, the Panthers struck for two goals to cut the deficit to one at the first intermission. 

They eventually took the lead and never relinquished it, all thanks to Clemmensen's effort. In 54 minutes of play, he stopped 19 Devils shots and a furious onslaught late in the third period to secure the win. 

1. Pekka Rinne

Pekka Rinne has turned the Nashville Predators into legitimate Stanley Cup contenders. 

The Joe Louis Arena was a house of horrors for opposing teams this year. The Detroit Red Wings just wouldn't lose at home. At one point they had won 23 consecutive home games.

So one would think that the Predators were going to run into some trouble on the road, right?

Wrong.

Rinne stopped 40 shots in Game 4 as the Preds took a 3-1 series advantage, securing home ice for the rest of the series. The last two games the Red Wings have thrown everything along with the kitchen sink at Rinne.

He's only allowed three goals on 84 shots.

He has 81 saves in the last two games as the Predators stole both games in Detroit, and there's no doubt that he'll be the series MVP should the Predators close it out at home in Game 5.