Eric Staal scored two goals and added two assists Sunday to be named the MVP of the All-Star game. The Northern Conference beat the South, 8-4, a more dominant performance than the North’s one-goal win last season.
Eric Staal wins a new Porsche 911 Carrera.
The MVP honor brought Staal a new Porsche 911 Carrera, but it also brought a healthy dose of pride to Spartan fans who have been struggling through a difficult season thus far. Stockholm is in 11th place in the Northern Conference and 10 points out of the playoffs at the half-way point of the season. He has seen his linemates from last year – Loui Eriksson and Miko Koivu leave in trades this season. But he loved the linemates he had on Sunday. Most of the day, coach Jamie Langenbrunner had him with Milan Lucic of Gothenburg and John Tavares of Edinburgh. Lucic was the game’s second star with a goal and 3 assists.
Staal wasn’t voted onto the team but was a clear choice to be added as the Stockholm representative. Three other players were added to the game Saturday due to injuries. Lucic’s teammate Carl Hagelin came in to replace St. Petersburg’s Erik Cole who is injuries; Brent Seabrook of Bern replaced Zdeno Chara of Bratislava and Bryan Little of Prague replaced Drew Stafford of Zurich. Hagelin had 2 goals and an assist on Sunday and Seabrook added an assist.
The Northern Conference, bolstered by Copenhagen goalie Roberto Luongo’s flawless goaltending, led 2-0 after the first period and they built on the lead from there.
London, the host team, will have their average game income of $1,285,901 added to the revenue side of their budget, assuming WSH2 allows it.
Here is the All-Star Game summary:
Game summary:
Scoring by periods
North – 2-4-2 … 8
South – o-1-3 … 4
First period
Goalies: North – Luongo; South – Quick
Goals:
North – Staal (1) ASST: Tavares (1) Lucic (1)
North – Tavares (1) ASST: Staal (1) Burns (1)
Second period
Goalies: North – Lundquist; South – Elliott
Goals:
North – Hagelin (1) ASST: Kessel (1) Lucic (2)
South – Toews (1) ASST: Pominville (1)
North – Staal (2) ASST: Bieksa (1) Girardi (1)
North – Kessel (1) ASST: Kesler (1) Ryan (1)
North – Kessel (2) ASST: Kesler (2) Suter (1)
Third period
Goalies: North – Rinne and Schneider; South – Lehtonen
Goals:
North – Lucic (1) ASST: Hagelin (1) Peverley (1)
South – Parise (1) ASST: Toews (1) Pominville (2)
North – Hagelin (2) ASST: Lucic (3) Staal (2)
South – Perron (1) ASST: Moulson (1) Little (1)
South – Perry (1) ASST: Zetterberg (1) Boyle (1)
3 Stars:
1 – Eric Staal (Stockholm), Northern Conference
2 – Milan Lucic (Gothenburg), Northern Conference
3 – Phil Kessel (Dublin), Northern Conference
MVP: Eric Staal (Stockholm), Northern Conference (2 goals, 2 assists)
