Pacific Division wins NHL All-Star Game

TAMPA, Fla. — Rickard Rakell had two goals and rookie Brock Boeser, Johnny Gaudreau and Drew Doughty also scored to help the Pacific Division win the NHL All-Star game with a 5-2 victory over the Atlantic Division on Sunday.

Pacific goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and

Mike Smith teamed to al- low just four goals in the two games their team captured to claim the $1 million shared by the winners of the four-team divisional tournament played in an entertaining three-on-three format.

The Canucks’ Boeser, the only rookie among 15 first-time AllStars, also had a goal in the Pacific’s 5-2 semifinal victory over the Central Division and was named game MVP.

Mike Green had two goals for the Atlantic, one off both Fleury and Smith in the final.

With the Lightning’s Jon Cooper coaching the Atlantic Division, and the team with the NHL’s best record represented by a league-high four players, the sellout crowd of 19,092 roared its approval when the Atlantic-Metropolitan semifinal began with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, plus forwards Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos on the ice at the same time.

Kucherov’s hat trick in the 7-4 semifinal victory was the first for an All-Star game since the NHL adopted the three-match, three-onthree tournament format in 2016.

Point, Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Buffalo’s Jack Eichel also scored for the Atlantic, which rallied from a 3-1 deficit after Vasilevskiy allowed early goals to Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby, Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin.

Boeser snapped a 2-2 tie, James Neal of the Western Conference-leading Vegas Golden Knights scored two goals, and Edmonton’s Connor McDavid had four assists in the Pacific’s semifinal victory over the Central Division.

Rakell