South pummels North 10-3 to reverse all-star trend

Athens forward Ryan O’Reilly was named MVP of the Season 5 All-Star Game.

HELSINKI – After losing the first four all-star games, the Southern Conference finally beat their northern neighbors and they did so emphatically, victimizing the hometown hero in the process.

Trailing 5-3 heading into the third period, Henrik Lundqvist took his turn in the Northern goal crease, but in the relatively warm weather in the first outdoor all-star game, he gotten burned badly. Lundqvist gave up five South goals, including two by the EURO League’s all-time leading scorer, Steven Stamkos of Lisbon. Stamkos, who also had an assist, was named the third star of the game. Paris superstar Evgeny Malkin had points on the first two goals of the game and finished as the highest scorer in the game with 4 points, but Ryan O’Reilly of Athens was voted as the game’s MVP, winning a new Aston Martin DB9 in the process.

An Aston Martin DB9, made in England.

He scored a hat trick and his second goal represented a turning point in the game. When O’Reilly scored his first goal in the first period, he gave the Southern Conference a 3-0 lead that held up into the first intermission. The North responded strongly in the second, scoring twice on Frederik Andersen of Geneva, but O’Reilly gave the South a two-goal lead with a wrist shot past Jonathan Quick’s catching glove, and Coach Glen Hanlon’s Southern Conference team never looked back.

Jimmy Howard of Berlin shut out the Northern Conference in the first period to turn in the best goaltending performance of the game.

Goals by Period

Northern: 0-2-1 – 3

Southern: 3-2-5 – 10

First Period

South: Landeskog 1 (Bergeron, Malkin)

South: Malkin 1 (Weber, Karlsson)

South: O’Reilly (Pominville, Myers)

Goalies: Jones, North, 3 GA; Howard, South, 0 GA

Second Period

North: Ryan (Nash, Vanek)

North: Suter (Kopitar, Carlson)