Team Atlantic wins 7-5 over Team Central in finals of 2023 NHL All-Star Game

The NHL All-Star game has come and gone, and it was a surprisingly entertaining game. The Atlantic and Central teams won their respective games, with the Atlantic team besting the Central in the finals, and we even got a home team MVP with Matthew Tkachuk.

Game 1: Pacific vs. Central

First Half

First we had the two Western Conference divisions face off, and it started off with an offside challenge? Okay, this rule may have gone too far.

Horvat and Pettersson connected on a goal but Team Central challenged it for offside and won the challenge 🙇#NHLAllStar | @Canucks | @NYIslanders pic.twitter.com/RCbTxDsrUe

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 4, 2023

That didn’t stop the goals, as the two teams traded goals in the first half with the Central taking a 3-2 lead going into the break. Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Seth Jones, and Elias Pettersson exchanged the first four, with MacKinnon double-dipping to give the Central the 3-2 lead on a beautiful play. Connor Hellebuyck stopped 7 of 9 shots while Logan Thompson struggled in his first All-Star game with just 4 saves on 7 shots.

Mikko Rantanen with a wicked backdoor feed to set up Nathan MacKinnon for his second goal#GoAvsGo | #NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/NVjDxEjwde

— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights (@HockeyDaily365) February 4, 2023

Second Half

Clayton Keller and Vladimir Tarasenko built on the Central’s lead to start the second half of the game, scoring two straight goals to give them a 5-2 lead. The Pacific started to make a comeback with back-to-back goals from Pettersson and Erik Karlsson to make it 5-4, but Keller secured the 6-4 win with his second goal of the game. Juuse Saros stopped 11 of 13 shots in that half for the Central, while Stuart Skinner matched teammate Thompson’s performance with 4 saves on 7 shots, and Tarasenko had the most points in the game with a goal and three assists.

Kells is the man. pic.twitter.com/R2F8aTu8r5

— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) February 4, 2023

Game 2: Atlantic vs. Metropolitan

First Half

The second matchup featured the two Eastern Conference divisions, and it saw both teams scoring in bunches. Matthew Tkachuk and Dylan Larkin opened the scoring for the Atlantic to give them an early 2-0 lead, but three straight goals from the Metropolitan Division in less than a minute (two from Johnny Gaudreau and one from Sidney Crosby) gave them a 3-2 lead, with one of them being an own goal from Linus Ullmark. The Atlantic responded quickly, getting goals from Brady Tkachuk and Nick Suzuki to take a 4-3 lead into the second half. Ullmark stopped 4 of 7 while Shesterkin stopped 5 of 9.

Second Half

The goals in bunches continued in the second half, as the Metropolitan team scoring three straight out of the gate with Gaudreau’s hat trick goal, Crosby’s second, and the final coming from Alex Ovechkin. But it was all Atlantic to finish the game, as they scored six straight from Matthew Tkachuk, Nikita Kucherov, Suzuki, Matthew Tkachuk again, Larkin, and David Pastrnak to give the Atlantic a 10-6 win, and a chance to be the first “home” team to win the All-Star game since switching to the 3v3 format. Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 10 of 13, Ilya Sorokin stopped 8 of 13, and Matthew Tkachuk led the way in scoring with three goals and two assists.

Florida's own Matthew Tkachuk finds the back of the net‼️#NHLAllStar pic.twitter.com/BqRLNsmwbB

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 4, 2023

Game 3: Central vs. Atlantic

First Half

Not only did the finals feature the Central and the Atlantic facing off for the first time against each other since switching to the 3v3 format, neither team has won the tournament either, meaning a new champion would be crowned today.

The Atlantic carried their momentum from their six straight goals and win over the Metropolitan team and took over the period with all three goals in the first half of the finals. Matthew Tkachuk opened the scoring 30 seconds in again with his fourth of the tournament, Kucherov added with his second goal halfway through the frame, and Larkin got his third in the final minute of the half. Saros stopped 11 of 14 shots, while Ullmark pitched a shutout in the ten minutes, putting aside all six shots that he faced.

Matthew Tkachuk is showing out in Florida 😎 pic.twitter.com/KYVUR4t7ni

— ESPN (@espn) February 4, 2023

Second Half

Not much changed in the second half for the Central, as the Atlantic built on their lead with another goal from Larkin to make it 4-0. After that, it was pretty much over, as the team’s traded goals over the remaining time limit from Rantanen, Pastrnak, Jason Robertson, Larkin, Keller, Rasmus Dahlin, and MacKinnon, with Cale Makar breaking that streak by scoring the second straight for the Central in the dying seconds. The Atlantic would take the game and the tournament with a 7-5 score, with Hellebuyck stopping 7 of 11 shots, and Vasilevskiy stopping 11 of 16 shots.

Matthew Tkachuk took home the MVP award thanks to his four goals and three assists in the tournament, helping the home team to their win in front of his own Florida crowd. Larkin also had an afternoon with five goals and one assist, and Mitch Marner also set a record for most assists since the All-Star game switched to 3v3 with six.