Team Pacific tops Team Atlantic to win 2018 NHL All-Star Game

Pacific 5, Atlantic 2: The All-Star Game ended with Mike Smith trying to fire the puck across the ice to score a last-second goal. It didn’t work, but the Pacific comes away with the $1 million prize in Tampa anyway. Brock Boeser of the Canucks has been named the All-Star Game MVP. A fun day for everyone involved!

Pacific 5, Atlantic 2: Rickard Rakell’s second goal of the game was as sweet as they come. He did a perfect job using his body to protect the puck from a defender and lifted the puck right over the goalie.

Pacific 4, Atlantic 2: The Mike Green Show rolls on! The Red Wings blue liner scored his second goal of the game in an otherwise listless offensive effort by the Atlantic team. Can you improve your trade value in an All-Star Game? Asking for a friend.

Pacific 4, Atlantic 1: The Gaudreau-Boeser combination continues to be unstoppable for the Pacific. The Atlantic have somehow mustered just four shots on goal so far.

Pacific 3, Atlantic 1: A penalty! Brad Marchand got tripped up by Johnny Gaudreau for the first penalty in an All-Star Game in two years. He proceeded to lay face down on the ice and play dead, which did not convince the referees to issue a double minor instead.

Pacific 3, Atlantic 1: Kings teammates Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar teamed up for a one-timer that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy to extend the Pacific lead back to two goals.

Pacific 2, Atlantic 1: With the intensity starting to ratchet up in this final game, Red Wings defenseman Mike Green came through with a crucial goal to cut the Pacific’s lead in half. It came off a great pass from Brad Marchand, who continues to have quite the weekend in Tampa despite being suspended for the real games.

Pacific 2, Atlantic 0: Brock Boeser keeps showing he belongs on the biggest stage possible because he’s fitting right in with the stars. The Canucks rookie banged home a rebound off a shot from Johnny Gaudreau to extend the Pacific lead to two goals early on.

Pacific 1, Atlantic 0: Rickard Rakell, the Ducks’ lone All-Star, gets the Pacific on the board early in the $1 million championship game by putting back a rebound for a goal.

Atlantic 7, Metropolitan 4: Nikita Kucherov hat trick! He completely faked out the goalie with a faux shot and slid the puck right into the five hole. Can’t do much better than that. This second All-Star matchup has definitely lived up to the billing in terms of thrilling highlights.

Atlantic 6, Metropolitan 4: The Atlantic has come alive!! That’s now three unanswered goals for the division since going down a goal. This time it was Bruins winger Brad Marchand, who seems to be having a blast all weekend, scoring to extend the lead to two goals

Atlantic 5, Metropolitan 4: After trailing 1-0, 2-1, 3-1, and 4-3, then having a goal waved off, the Atlantic finally takes its first lead of the game on Jack Eichel’s first goal of the game. He now has

Atlantic 4, Metropolitan 4: OFFSIDE!!!!!! NO GOAL!!!!! In one of the most hilarious sequences yet in Tampa, a goal by Erik Karlsson was waived off for offsides because Nikita Kucherov had not gotten off the ice yet and was deemed offside. Apparently, the league nitpicks its offside rule even in the All-Star Game. Huh.

Metropolitan 4, Atlantic 4: We’re being treated to a lot more awesome highlights in this game than the last one. Brayden Point and Brad Marchand connected for a perfect give-and-go play that ended with Point popping the puck to tie things up again. Lightning forwards have now scored three of the Atlantic’s four goals.

Metropolitan 4, Atlantic 3: Kris Letang gave Carey Price little chance of stopping him with a nifty delayed shot that wrapped around the goalie to get the Metro the lead again.

Metropolitan 3, Atlantic 3: Nikita Kucherov and Jack Eichel, that was pretty. Right after Kucherov made a sweet behind-the-back pass to Eichel, the Sabres center did another behind-the-back pass right back to the Lightning winger to set up a goal. This might be the goal of the game.

Metropolitan 3, Atlantic 2: KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!! The Lightning fans had good reason to cheer after star winger Nikita Kucherov got the Atlantic back on the scoreboard with a much-needed goal. It’s now a one-goal game at the intermission between 10-minute periods, although Brad Marchand did get in one last quality chance in the final seconds before the buzzer.

Metropolitan 3, Atlantic 1: Alex Ovechkin extended the Metro lead with Erik Karlsson right in his face. He’ll do that.

Metropolitan 2, Atlantic 1: Claude Giroux, in his fifth All-Star Game appearance, got the lead back for the Metro with a nifty breakaway goal. He appeared to lure the goalie into thinking he might pass, then capitalized on the short side with a goal.

Metropolitan 1, Atlantic 1: Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel won’t get to team up on Team USA for this year’s Winter Olympics, but we’re still getting to see them together in Tampa. Here’s the backhand goal that Matthews just scored off a sweet dish from Eichel to tie the game.

Metropolitan 1, Atlantic 0: Sidney Crosby scoring a goal off a dish from Alex Ovechkin is the kind of thing you’ll only see in the All-Star Game.

The goal came after the Atlantic opened with an all-Lightning quartet to start the game, which was a nice nod to the hosting team.

Pacific 5, Central 2: Okay, the Pacific has won the first game. James Neal scored again not long after Brent Burns to put it away. Connor McDavid recorded assists on four of the five goals because he’s good like that. The Central outshot the Pacific, 16-14, but it didn’t translate on the scoreboard. ANOTHER BLOW AGAINST THE CORSI NERDS!

Pacific 4, Central 2: The Pacific is starting to run away with this one after another quick goal by Brent Burns after the Central pulled their goalie. Expect some more 4-on-3 action here as the Central tries to salvage this extremely important game.

Pacific 3, Central 2: Good golly, Brock Boeser can shoot. We saw it during the Skills Competition on Saturday night, and we saw it again Sunday in the All-Star Game.

Pacific 2, Central 2: P.K. Subban ties the game on a breakaway immediately after Drew Doughty wiggles his way through a failed breakaway effort. The Predators defenseman managed to elevate the puck just over the goalie’s glove.

Pacific 2, Central 1: An awesome passing play by Brent Burns, Connor McDavid, and James Neal concluded with Neal firing home a shot from the slot to give the Pacific the late lead. That’s really the first great sequence of puck movement we’ve seen in roughly 17 minutes of 3-on-3 hockey, which isn’t quite what we expected.

Also, Flames goaltender Mike Smith has been feeling frisky with the puck.

Central 1, Pacific 1: Johnny Gaudreau hits a post! Everyone hits a post!

Central 1, Pacific 1: A failed passing play by the Central in the offensive zone led to a breakaway for Los Angeles defenseman Drew Doughty going the other way, and he didn’t waste it by firing a shot off the post and in to beat the Jets’ Connor Hellebuyck. We’re tied up with a bit over five minutes left in the first game.

Central 1, Pacific 0: Connor McDavid had as beastly a shift as you could deliver without scoring, courtesy of some ridiculous saves by Pekka Rinne. The Oilers center used his unmatched speed to produce multiple breakaways in a matter of seconds, yet Rinne stood up to the task each time to keep the Central ahead.

The main takeaway from that shift was still, “Good lord, McDavid is unstoppable,” but, well, Rinne did stop him this time around.

Central 1, Pacific 0: Nathan MacKinnon found some open space in the middle of the offensive zone and rattled a perfect shot in for the first goal of the 2018 All-Star Game. If you don’t watch many Avalanche games, this is a good chance to see one of the best players in the NHL.

That also came not long after Tyler Seguin had the game’s first breakaway, which required a very good save from Marc-Andre Fleury.

Brad Marchand and the Lightning fans continue to have a ... love-hate relationship.

P.K. Subban, the captain for the Central team, gave his ‘C’ a little brush during player announcements. He doesn’t even wear an ‘A’ for the Predators, who have Roman Josi as their captain, so this probably means a little extra for him.

Here’s Alex Ovechkin making a young fan extremely happy before the game.

The top hockey players in the world face off in the 2018 NHL All-Star Game Sunday afternoon in Tampa. It’s another 3-on-3 tournament this year, which means there should be a lot of open space, high-flying plays, and scoring over the next few hours at Amalie Arena.

The games begin at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast by NBC in the United States.

Connor McDavid, Johnny Gaudreau, and Brent Burns will help the Pacific Division try to defend its title against the other three divisions. It’s the same format as the past couple years, so there will be four teams of 11 players each representing the divisions in 3-on-3 action.

The games will include two 10-minute halves and be decided in a shooting if still tied at the end. The first two games will see the Pacific face the Central and the Metropolitan take on the Atlantic. The winners of those games will advance to a championship game.

McDavid, Steven Stamkos, P.K. Subban, and Alex Ovechkin were voted into the game as team captains. The other players, which include at least one from every NHL team, were selected by the league office.

The hosting Lightning have a league-high four All-Stars in the game: Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Defenseman Victor Hedman was initially named to the rosters, but he pulled out due to injury and was replaced by Point.

Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa

Time: 3:30 p.m. ET

TV: NBC (U.S.); Sportsnet, CBC, TVA Sports (Canada)

Live stream: NBC Sports Live