Team Matthews won the 2024 NHL All-Star Game tournament thanks to a pair of goals by its namesake superstar from the host Toronto Maple Leafs. Here's how the 3 games went down-
1st Semifinal: Team MacKinnon 3, Team McDavid 4
Nathan MacKinnon led his namesake team with 2 goals, including the first of this semifinal at the 3:24 mark in the 1st of 2 10 minute periods. Team McDavid's 1st goal of the tournament came from Columbus' Boone Jenner at 7:58 of the 1st period. The 2nd period featured many more goals, from the likes of Seattle's Oliver Bjorkstrand at 5:51, MacKinnon's 2nd of the game at 6:45 to give his team a 3-1 lead, before Boston's David Pastrnak and Edmonton's Connor McDavid tied it up just before the end of regulation. With no 5 minute 3-on-3 overtime, we headed to a shootout where 2 goals were scored by McDavid and Pastrnak in the top of Round 1 and Round 3, and it was Pastrnak that gave Team McDavid the 4-3 comeback win with his goal.
2nd Semifinal: Team (Jack) Hughes, Team Matthews 6
A more hotly contested matchup, this one didn't need as long compared to the 1st semi to see the opening goal, courtesy of Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov at 1:19. Perhaps that made up for the boos directed at him during the Stickhandling Showdown the day before. This gave Team Jack Hughes the lead before Team Matthews tied it via Detroit's Alex DeBrincat at 2:43, and he'd later score again at 5:07 of half 1, shall we say. Frank Vatrano also scored 2, first at 3:32 in half 1 and then at the 7:35 mark of half 2. Before half 2, things were, in fact, tied at 2 before being split by Toronto's Mitch Marner at 2:17 for a 3-2 Matthews lead. This kickstarted a frenzy of goals, as after Marner's tally came Vancouver's Elias Pettersson at 4:18 to knot it at 3, then Nashville's Filip Forsberg at 4:45 to put Matthews back in front 4-3, Ottawa's Brady Tkachuk at 7:02 to tie things at 4, Vatrano's 2nd mentioned above for a 5-4 Hughes advantage, then finally, a 5-5 game tier by Forsberg at 8:08. Another shootout commenced, where in the top of Round 4, DeBrincat put the only puck in the cage to win it for Team Matthews. Every other shot was kept out!
All-Star Game Championship: Team McDavid 4, Team Matthews 7
Despite winning the prior day's Skills Competition, Edmonton's star center couldn't quite nab another million dollars by helping his named team win the All-Star Game final four tournament. Arizona's Clayton Keller got TMat on the board first at 2:17, followed quickly by Boone Jenner's 2nd of the tournament at 5:08. Mitch Marner put TMat back in front at 7:11 before a 2-2 tie courtesy of Pastrnak, TMcD's shootout hero at 8:08. Auston Matthews reclaimed his namesake team's lead at 8:13 of the 1st half but TMcD tied it up at 3 just before the end of the 1st via Edmonton's Leon Draisaitl.
Starting the 2nd period, Filip Forsberg continued his hot streak with his 3rd of the tournament at the 1:06 mark. Matthews, though, added his 2nd of the game at 4:59, showing everyone why he wasn't done. And as fate would have it, it'd also be enough for him to get tournament MVP honors at the end. Meanwhile, DeBrincat added his 3rd of the tournament followed by San Jose's Tomas Hertl at 8:34 and then the final goal of the tournament came from the Islanders' Matt Barzal at 8:54, a mere 20 seconds later.
As mentioned above, Matthews (the player) claims the extra $1 million despite at least 3 other players having better outings. Call it a home team bias since the game was in Toronto, but that's how the NHL's annual superstar showdown for the year occurred. And there's no game next year so players can finally prepare to return to the Olympic Games for the first time since Sochi 2014, in 2026, taking place in Milan, Italy!
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