TORONTO — The final game pitted two Rangers All-Star players against a Rangers All-Star coach.
A showdown between New York’s best of the best, including Islanders star center Mathew Barzal. He teamed with the Blueshirts’ No. 1 goalie, Igor Shesterkin, and second-line center Vincent Trocheck to defeat head coach Peter Laviolette. Saturday night, all-star game crowning.
Laviolette stands behind the bench for Team Connor McDavid, while Shesterkin and Trocheck stand behind the bench for Team Auston Matthews, the enthusiastic and lively crowd of various fandoms gathered inside Scotiabank Arena. I competed in front of an audience.
In the end, Team Matthews won 7-4, with Rangers players Trocheck and Shesterkin returning to practice at the MSG Training Center in New York on Sunday ahead of the final 33 games of the regular season. I was given bragging rights against Olette. .
Sure there will be some screaming, but it’s all a lot of fun for the Rangers after an eventful weekend in Toronto.
Trocheck was making his second All-Star appearance with his 5-year-old son Leo, who skated on the ice at Scotiabank Arena wearing his father’s Rangers jersey before Friday’s skills competition. This moment will probably never be forgotten by either of them.
Meanwhile, Shesterkin more than held his own in every game during his second All-Star weekend against some of the NHL’s best skaters.
Perhaps it was enough to give the Russian netminder confidence before returning to the regular season.
Team Matthews and Team McDavid were tied 3-3 going into the second half of the final match.
Filip Forsberg and Matthews then each scored in the final 10 minutes to take a 5-3 lead, and the Red Wings’ Alex DeBrincat scored an empty-net goal for a three-point lead.
The Sharks’ Tomas Hertl scored a goal for Team McDavid with less than a minute and a half left, but Barzal scored his first goal of the day on a 2-0 rush to keep the game within reach.
Shesterkin allowed three goals in the first half to Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner, Bruins’ David Pastrnak, and Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl, but Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger scored in the second half. Ta.
Trocheck, Shesterkin and the rest of Team Matthews went goal-to-goal with Team Jack and Quinn Hughes in a fast-paced second game.
Shesterkin scored late in the 20-minute game, and Trocheck assisted Filip Forsberg to make the score 4-3.
Shesterkin may have allowed goals to the Canucks’ Elias Pettersson, the Senators’ Brady Tkachuk and the Panthers’ Frank Vatrano due to regulations, but he made crucial stops to the Devils’ Jesper Bratt and the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov. Ta.
However, the Rangers’ netminder performed impregnably in the shootout and led his team to victory.
After making saves on Kucherov, Pettersson and the Jets’ Kyle Connor, Shesterkin capped off a perfect shootout performance with a poke check on the Canucks’ JT Miller.
Laviolette and Team McDavid lost the first game of the day against Team Nathan MacKinnon, 3-1, with two regulation goals taken from MacKinnon himself, of course.
Laviolette pulled the goalie with about 1:30 left, and Pastrnak made it a one-point game with 31.5 seconds left.
McDavid then scored with 5.4 seconds left to force a shootout, with only the Oilers captain and Pastrnak scoring to complete the comeback.
Panthers netminder Sergei Bobrovsky denied that Penguins captain Sidney Crosby and MacKinnon contributed to Team McDavid’s victory.
