Defense goes on holiday for All-Stars

COLUMBUS, Ohio – It was enough to give a goalie nightmares: A record 29 goals, 25 players with at least two points and eight with at least four.

In addition to the high-profile superstars who didn’t make it to Ohio’s capital city for the NHL All-Star game, defense also took a holiday.

John Tavares of the New York Islanders matched a record with four goals, and Team Toews beat Team Foligno 17-12 on Sunday night in the highest-scoring NHL All-Star game.

“We had so many good players on each team,” said Philadelphia Flyers forward Jake Voracek, who tied another record with six points. “There’s going to be a lot of goals.”

How much offense was there? Tavares wasn’t even the MVP, although that might have been due to a little home-cooking. Ryan Johansen of the host Columbus Blue Jackets had two goals and two assists for the losing side and was selected as the MVP in voting by fans on Twitter.

Tavares was as gracious about the balloting as he was good on the ice.

“I didn’t come to the game trying to get the car,” said Tavares, referring to the prize given to the MVP. “You get four goals, and obviously you think you have an opportunity. But Ryan had a good game. He had a couple of nice goals, made some nice plays.”

Johansen, a budding star for Columbus, was touched by the smiles of the fans he encountered all week.

“It’s meant a lot, being a part of it – seeing the fans and how much they’ve been enjoying all the festivities,” he said. “We did a two-hour (autograph) signing. Everybody just seemed to be having a great time. All the kids were laughing and having a lot of fun.”

The players, at least those on offense, had a lot of fun once the game started. The wild, no-defense exhibition even featured a fake fight to go with goals in bunches.

It was the most goals in the event’s 60-year history, eclipsing the 26-goal burst in North America’s 14-12 win over the World in 2001.

Tavares’ four goals gave him a share of the All-Star record that was established by Wayne Gretzky in 1983, and equaled by Mario Lemieux (1990), Vincent Damphousse (1991), Mike Gartner (1993) and Dany Heatley (2003).

Captain Nick Foligno, also of Columbus, was asked what he learned from being a captain of the team he helped pick.

“How to handle 20 egos,” he cracked. “That’s probably the hardest thing. But it’s fun in the role of showing off our team and our city.”

The fake fight provided some energy to a capacity crowd of 18,901 on the game’s first visit to Columbus. Late in the second period, during a scrum in front of the net, Alexander Ovechkin and Foligno pretended to mix it up with Calgary’s Mark Giordano and Chicago’s Brent Seabrook.

The players were laughing after they grabbed and hugged each other.

With the game tied at 4 after the first period, Team Toews broke it open with six goals in 9 1/2 minutes – and seven in the frame.