Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings scored three goals, while Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers collected one goal and one assist on his home ice to lead the Atlantic Division squad to a 7-5 victory over the Central Division in the All-Star Game final Saturday at Sunrise, Fla.
The Atlantic duo dominated the day. Tkachuk, who was named the three-on-three tournament’s MVP, collected three goals and five points in his team’s 10-6 semifinal victory over the Metropolitan Division, while Larkin scored twice in a three-point game.
Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning scored once and added an assist in the final, while David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins and Rasmus Dahlen of the Buffalo Sabres added single goals. Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs added three assists after he also contributed three in the semifinal.
Linus Ullmark of the Boston Bruins stopped all six shots he faced in the opening half, among them a breakaway save on Mikko Rantanen in the opening seconds. Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning stopped 11 of 16 shots he faced in the second half.
The champions will share a $1 million prize pool.
Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche collected one goal and two assists for the Central Division, while his teammates Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon posted one goal and one assist. The Central Division advanced to the final by beating the Pacific Division 6-4. Jason Robertson of the Dallas Stars and Clayton Keller of the Arizona Coyotes also scored for the Central.
Juuse Saros of the Nashville Predators blocked 11 of 14 shots in the first half, while Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets made seven saves in the second half.
Tkachuk opened the scoring 36 seconds into the clash with a wraparound goal, and Kucherov doubled the lead at 4:05 with a redirect of a pass from Marner seconds after Ullmark made another clutch stop at the other end of the rink.
Larkin scored on a partial breakaway set up by Marner with 42.2 seconds remaining in the first half to give the Atlantic a 3-0 lead, and added another when he ripped a shot from the slot two minutes into the second half.
Rantanen finally put the Central squad on the board at 4:05 of the second half when he converted the pass from MacKinnon, but Pastrnak scored on a breakaway with 2:46 remaining in the clash.
Robertson kicked off a crazy final couple of minutes by scoring with 73 seconds on the clock only to see Larkin cap his game seven seconds later and make it a 6-2 count and put the game out of reach.
After Keller scored, Dahlin — seconds after failing to convert on a penalty shot — tallied with 36 seconds on the clock only to see MacKinnon and Makar score in the dying seconds.
–Field Level Media