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MONTREAL -- A shootout to end
the shootout.
That was the fitting ending for the 2009 NHL All-Star Game at the Bell Centre on
Sunday as All-Star MVP Alex
Kovalev of the hometown
Montreal
Canadiens and Washington's Alex
Ovechkin scored against Roberto
Luongo in the shootout to give
the Eastern Conference a 12-11 victory over the Western Conference.
With four members of the Canadiens in the Eastern Conference's starting lineup,
there was a little extra juice to this game, most notably from the fans who
cheered their guys loud and long all weekend, with other Quebec natives also
feeling the love.
"I don't think it's only now," Kovalev said. "I think they've been like that
since I got to Montreal. I don't remember one day that they wouldn't be so
passionate and so excited. Just to come to this building and see open practice,
whatever it is, or just regular practice, like I said, it's always been so
exciting to be on the ice, surrounded by all these fans."
But Kovalev, who won a 2009 Honda Ridgeline as the Honda NHL MVP winner, noted
that it was a two-way street with the Montreal contingent of Kovalev, goalie Carey
Price and defensemen Mike
Komisarek and Andrei Markov, plus
Canadiens coach Guy
Carbonneau, looking to put on a good show.
"Before the All-Star Game, before this weekend, I knew how important it would
be for all of us, not just for me, to succeed and put on a show and have fun,"
Kovalev said. "But like I said, you couldn't ask (for) more. When I heard that
I'd been named as the captain of the team, you know, I just said to myself 'I
have one more left, to get MVP.' I think that's going to be the full package
that I'm going to remember the rest of my life."
"It was fun," Carbonneau said. "Obviously, having this event here in Montreal,
it's just a great weekend for everybody. You know, for Alex, Mike
Komisarek, Andrei
Markov, Carey
Price and myself, we couldn't ask
for anything better. You know, the fans have been here every game and cheering
on the players every game. You know, I knew this was not going to be different
tonight."
The magic of Montreal rubbed off on all the participants as voiced by Boston
Bruins coach Claude
Julien, a former Canadiens coach.
"I don't know if I have a specific moment, but I think that this has been an
outstanding weekend," Julien said. "You can talk to any player, talk to any
coach. The way it's been organized by this organization, the way the people came
to Montreal, and the Montreal fans, and the way they've reacted to all of this
has just made this whole weekend outstanding.
"I know from the personal side of it, our players really enjoyed it. They had a
great weekend. They represented us extremely well. And, again, I think this
whole weekend has been a huge success."
On to the nitty gritty of a game that saw 22 goals in regulation play, none in
overtime and two in the shootout, not to mention the ragged nerves of the six
goaltenders forced to endure the offensive exploits.
The East held a 4-2 lead after one period, but that was erased in a wild second
period that saw 10 goals score and an 8-8 tie after 40 minutes. The see-saw
third period produced six goals, but no winner. Neither did the 5-minute
overtime. So it was on to the shootout, with Roberto
Luongo in goal for the West and Tim
Thomas manning the nets for the
East.
Thomas, who made a couple of spectacular saves in overtime, stopped Shane
Doan and Rick
Nash in the shootout, while
Luongo was not as fortunate.
Kovalev ripped a blistering drive over his glove hand on the East's second
attempt for the eventual winner. Alex
Ovechkin followed with a dizzying
array of moves on the way to his own shootout goal, one that ended the West's
hopes.
As you can tell from the score, the goals came at a fast and furious pace,
especially in the second. While the third period didn't have the barrage of
goals that marked the second, the West-East-West-East rhythm kept the game close
and the sellout crowd perched on the edge of their seats.
Doan had staked the West to a 9-8 lead just 32 seconds into the third, but Dany
Heatley restored the tie at 2:17.
Chicago's Jonathan
Toews put the West back on top by
a goal, but Tampa Bay's Martin
St. Louis struck back for a 10-10 tie at 13:19.
It looked like Chicago's Patrick
Kane got the winner at 15:18 on a
slick breakaway goal, but that hope was dashed by a sharp wrister from Florida's Jay
Bouwmeester at 16:21 which sent
the game to overtime tied at 11.
When all was said and done, Kovalev and St. Louis had 2 goals and 1 assist each
for the East. Marc
Savard had 3 assists, Bouwmeester 1 goal and 2 assists, the same total as
Ovechkin. Mark
Streit and Tomas
Kaberle each had 2 assists.
For the Western Conference, Sheldon
Souray had 2 goals and 1 assist, Joe
Thornton had 3 assists, Milan
Hejduk, Patrick
Marleau and Rick
Nash each had 1 goal and 2
assists, while Doan, Dan
Boyle and Kane each scored 1 goal
and 1 assist.
In case you weren't convinced that no lead is safe in the All-Star Game, we
present the second period, where a two-goal East lead built in Period 1
disappeared in a hurry en route to an 8-8 tie after 40 minutes.
The goals came at a fast and furious pace against the unfortunate Henrik
Lundqvist and Niklas
Backstrom, who aren't likely to look back at this All-Star experience with
terribly fond memories, with Lundqvist surrendering six goals and Backstrom
four.
For those scoring at home, the avalanche of goals went as follows.
St. Louis made it 5-2 for the East at 1:21 with a whirling backhander off a
Kaberle pass. New Jersey's Zach
Parise made it 6-2 at 2:11 off
assists from St. Louis and Streit. Four-goal lead seems safe, right?
Yeah … no way. Souray got one back at 3:29 and Boyle netted his first at 5:14
and it was a 6-4 lead for the East before Evgeni
Malkin made it 7-4 at 7:45 of the
middle period.
That lead disappeared in a hurry too when Nash scored on a breakaway at 8:27 and
then Hejduk scored off a slick pass from Boyle at 9:02 to bring the West within
one, 7-6, at 9:02.
Souray's second goal of the period forged a 7-7 tie at 10:34 when he pulled up
on a slap shot and beat Lundqvist from the left circle, using East defenseman
Komisarek as a screen.
Are we done yet?
Ah, no.
Kovalev restored the East lead with a backhander at 3:36, but Calgary's Jarome
Iginla scored the first All-Star goal of his career at 16:46 to retie the
game at 8-8.
For some time, it seemed like the goalies would get off easy in the first period,
despite the fact the Western Conference scored at 1:16 of the game. Still, it
was just 3-1 for the East into the final minute of the first before the two
squads swapped goals to make the score a more All-Star-like 4-2 after 20
minutes.
The offensive skills on display in this All-Star Game seemed especially daunting
for those trying to keep the puck out of the next. The slick moves, tape-to-tape
passes and creative moves really put a premium on talent in a big way.
St. Louis' Keith
Tkachuk came away with the game's
first goal just 1:16 in, camping in front of Price and banging home a behind-the-net
pass from Nash. Hejduk also assisted on the goal.
Ovechkin and Savard used the old give-and-go to tie the game at 6:26, with
Ovechkin feeding Savard in the right corner and then burying the return pass
against Anaheim goalie Jean-Sebastien
Giguere.
Carolina's Eric
Staal took advantage of a carom
off the skate of Boyle to give the East a 2-1 edge at 9:30, backhanding the shot
past Giguere with Bouwmeester and Kovalev picking up assists.
Kaberle had earned boos during All-Star Weekend for being a member of the Toronto
Maple Leafs, but he figured out a pretty good way to earn some cheers when
his long breakout pass sprung hometown favorite Kovalev for a breakaway that saw
the slick veteran use an off-speed shot to fool Giguere and make it 3-1 at
16:34.
Savard and Ovechkin got into the action at 19:23, using hard, pinpoint passes to
set Markov up for an easy goal in front of the West's net. A turnover in the
defensive zone cost the East, however, as Thornton set up teammate Marleau for a
drive from the right faceoff dot that caught Price off guard at 19:48 to make it
4-2.
source:nhl.com