Pacific wins all-star tourney as Scott is MVP; Giroux's Metro team falls in opener
NASHVILLE - A shutout in an NHL All-Star Game and an MVP award for a player, John Scott, who is in the minors.
Yes, it was one of the most bizarre all-star days in league history.
Goalies Jonathan Quick and John Gibson did the unthinkable Sunday: They combined for a shutout as the Pacific Division edged the Atlantic, 1-0, in the NHL all-star championship game at Bridgestone Arena.
It was a 20-minute, three-on-three contest, and the winners won $1 million - or nearly $91,000 for each of the 11 players.
Anaheim's Corey Perry scored the lone goal, and his goalies combined for 17 saves.
After the game, some Pacific players picked up Scott and put him on their shoulders for a hero's salute. He scored two goals in Sunday's semifinal and he was named the tourney MVP. Scott was not on the league's MVP ballot, but fans made him the overwhelming choice, anyway, in a Twitter vote.
"Just another moment of this weekend that I cannot believe," said Scott, who said the new Honda SUV he won as the MVP will come in handy because he has two children and his wife is expecting twins. "I would never in a million years think I'd get in an All-Star Game."
Scott is a 6-foot-8, 270-pound enforcer whose selection as captain by the fans was greeted with controversy. The NHL thought it was a farce, and Scott said last week the league tried to get him to skip the game.
In Sunday's semifinal, he scored a pair of goals to spark the Pacific past the Central, 9-6.
Scott scored 47 seconds into the game, then celebrated by going down on one knee and triumphantly raising his right fist into the air. He later scored on a breakaway to give the Pacific a 5-3 lead.
Not bad for a 33-year-old guy who has five goals in 285 career games and was sent to the minors recently after being traded to Montreal by Arizona.
"Thank you so much, you guys have just blown me away," Scott said in a TV interview after the game as fans chanted, "MVP, MVP."
Scott called it "one of the better weekends of my life."
As for the MVP award, "he deserved it . . . t's not like it was just given to him," said Florida's Jaromir Jagr, who played for the Atlantic and had a goal in the semifinal.
"I'm happy for him; I'm sure he's probably on Cloud 1,000 and he should be. He played really, really well," Montreal's P.K. Subban said. "With everything he's gone through and to come to the All-Star Game and perform that way. He had fun the whole time, and that's what this is all about."
The low-scoring final surprised most players.
"You look around and there's a lot of firepower on both teams and it just shows how good these goalies are," Perry said.
The teams were scoreless after the first 10 minutes of the final as Quick and Roberto Luongo (Atlantic) took turns trading spectacular saves.
A little over two minutes after South Jersey's Johnny Gaudreau (Calgary) hit the post, the Pacific took the lead when Perry's right-circle wrist shot got past goalie Ben Bishop's right pad with 6:22 to go.
Perry thought he had made it 2-0 with 2:53 left, but the goal was erased after a video review showed that Taylor Hall had interfered with Bishop.
Gaudreau, the pride of Carneys Point and Gloucester Catholic High, was later denied by Bishop on a breakaway with 4:40 remaining. And he fired another shot off iron with 2:37 remaining.
This was the first year of the three-on-three format, and the participants gave their approval.
"I broke a better sweat than last year, for sure," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said after being held scoreless as his Metropolitan Division team fell to the Atlantic Division, 4-3, in the opener of the mini-tournament. "The puck moves up and down and guys are obviously creative. I thought it would be a higher-scoring game, but it was still pretty good."
Especially for Scott.
"I hope this opens some doors," he said.
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