Gaborik taunts teammate Henrik Lundqvist after scoring on him
The All star game concluded tonight with a 12-9 win for Team Chara. Yes, you read those numbers correct. With the best players in the league pitted against each other the high scoring game was highly anticipated and expected.
The first period started off strong for Team Chara with an early goal by Marian Gaborik followed quickly by a goal from Evegni Malkin. The blue team seemed to be on fire as they shot pucks past Henrik Lundqvist five minutes later with a 3rd goal. That was when Team Alfredsson knew they had to step it up and hometown hero Jason Spezza made the first goal to even up the scoring gap. This was followed by two goals from Alfresson and Henrik Sedin only for John Tavares to tie it up again.
The interesting thing about the all star game is that there was only one penalty in the entire game which occurred in the first period. This is most likely because the all stars are more conscious of not getting hurt so it doesn’t mess up their game when the regular season starts up again on Tuesday. Dion Phaneuf tripped Steven Stamkos on the breakaway so Stamkos was awarded a penalty shot and Phaneuf didn’t have to spend any time in the sin bin. Unfortunately Stamkos wasn’t able to score using the spin-a-rama move he repeated from the skills competition.
The game had gone from looking like Team Chara was dominating to a tied game at three. Fans had no idea what to expect in the second period, only that it was going to be good. Team Alfie wasn’t going down without a fight, but Team Chara knew this and they continued to assault goaltender Quick with shots by being granted the the first two goals of the second period, again giving them lead. Gaborik was one of these goalscorers and with two goals already on the board he was fixing to get a hat trick.
Mimicking the first period, Team Alfie came back with a goal by Pomenville and pairs of goals by team captain Alfredsson. The game was literally a neck and neck hockey game, as Patrick Kane scored the last game in the period to tie the game 6-6. Already that number was high scoring for a regular season game, but the goal scoring was not going to stop there.
It was in the third period that Team Chara came out with guns blazing. Goals were scored back and forth in this period first with a Kessel goal for Team Chara, then Michalek scored to tie it up again. When Ignila made it 7-8 Claude Giroux came in with another goal to tie in again to 8-8.
All of the players were unstoppable in this game, but things began to wane for Team Alfredsson after Giroux’s goal. Team Chara came back to assault third period goaltender Elliot with three goals nearly in a row scored by Hossa, Chara and Perry. They had gotten the lead back late in the game, but still Team Alfie was not prepared to lose so quickly. Alfredsson tried to score in an attempt to get a hat trick but he was denied by the beast that is Tim Thomas. Daniel Sedin did get one last goal in for his team, but this was not enough especially since Joffrey Lupul widened the scoring gap even more to 12 goals with the last goal of the game.
Although the players in the all star game appear to not play with as many hits and body checks as they do in regular season games, with a game that led to a 12-9 victory there is no wonder why these players were all picked to play in the game. Perhaps this game is a preview of what the NHL will see come playoffs.
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