Florida Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk collected a hat trick as part of a five-point performance in his home arena, lifting the Atlantic Division to a 10-6 victory over the Metropolitan in the second All-Star Game tournament semifinal Saturday in Sunrise, Fla.
Brady Tkachuk, his younger brother and captain of the Ottawa Senators, recorded one goal and three assists.
Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin had two goals and an assist and Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki tallied twice. David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins and Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning also scored a goal for the Atlantic.
Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Aleksander Barkov of the Panthers both registered three assists.
Linus Ullmark of the Bruins surrendered three goals on seven shots in the first period, while also recording an assist. Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning stopped 10 of 13 shots in the second period.
In the final to come later on Saturday, the Atlantic Division will face the Central stars, who claimed a 6-4 win over the Pacific Division. The winning team will share a $1 million prize pool.
Johnny Gaudreau of the Columbus Blue Jackets scored three goals for the Metropolitan stars, while Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins netted two goals and an assist. Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals scored one goal and set up two others and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers had three assists.
Igor Shesterkin of the Rangers stopped five of nine shots in the opening period before Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders allowed five goals on 13 shots.
Matthew Tkachuk opened the scoring just 36 into the clash with a breakaway tally before Larkin doubled the lead when he threaded the needle with a short-side shot at the 4:08 mark.
Gaudreau responded with a pair of goals 20 seconds apart just past the midway point of the period. Crosby completed a give-and-go with Ovechkin to put the Metropolitan ahead 3-2 at 6:19.
Brady Tkachuk evened the score 40 seconds later with a rebound goal, and Suzuki finished a cross-ice pass from Marner with 2:05 left in the first period to put the Atlantic back ahead at 4-3.
The wild back-and-forth continued in the second period. After Gaudreau’s third of the game came via breakaway 25 seconds into the second period, Crosby and Ovechkin both tallied on the same shift to make it a 6-4 score.
The Atlantic responded in a big way. Matthew Tkachuk scored his second of the game at 3:49 to make it a one-goal game, and Kucherov went top-shelf 41 seconds later to even the game 6-6.
Suzuki netted his second of the game with 4:09 remaining followed by Matthew Tkachuk’s hat-trick goal with 3:11 on the clock. After Larkin’s empty-net goal, Pastrnak rounded out the scoring.
–Field Level Media
