Jonathan Toews’ team was beaten in the NHL Skills Competition on Saturday night, but the captain had the last laugh as he scored a goal and dished out four assists in his team’s 17-12 win over Team Foligno in Sunday’s NHL All-Star Game.
John Tavares scored four goals for Team Toews, and Jakub Voracek added three goals and three assists. Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos each had two goals and an assist apiece in Team Foligno’s loss, and Ryan Johansen thrilled the hometown crowd with two goals and two assists in the game.
The first period saw Foligno’s team get off to a hot start, as Radim Vrbata scored early to make it 1-0. Toews’ club responded well however, scoring two straight goals to seize the lead. Toews picked up his first assist of the evening on the second goal, sliding across a perfect pass to Voracek to make it a 2-1 game.
Over the final 10 minutes of the frame, both teams kept firing away and scoring. Johansen scored twice in the period, including a goal that gave Team Foligno a 4-3 lead. That advantage was a brief one however, as Tavares scored his first goal of the evening with about a minute left to leave the game tied at 4-4 after the first period of play.
The second period got off to a much more aggressive start, as the teams racked up four goals in the first two and a half minutes. Kane picked up the primary assist on Claude Giroux’s goal just 32 seconds into the period, and by the time Stamkos scored at the 2:27 mark of the period, the game was tied once again at 6-6.
As the period wore on, the scoring kept on coming and Toews kept on racking up assists. The captain had two assists in the period, picking up primary helpers for both Rick Nash and Voracek. His team’s big push as the period wore on left them up by a score of 11-9 with 20 minutes to go in the contest.
The final period of the contest featured plenty more goals, and the Blackhawks were right in the heart of everything. Kane scored twice in the period, including on a gorgeous top-shelf tally early on, and he wasn’t alone as Brent Seabrook picked up his first career All-Star Game assist on Tavares’ fourth goal of the evening.
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Ultimately though, the game belonged to Team Toews, and the captain made one last emphatic goal late in the period as he scored on a top-shelf deke move off a pass from Ryan Suter to extend the team’s lead. Brent Burns did add one late tally for Team Foligno, but it wasn’t enough as Team Toews secured the victory.
The game capped off an exciting weekend in Columbus, and set the stage for next year’s game, which will be held in Nashville.
