Boeser shines in all-star debut

Rickard Rakell had two goals and Brock Boeser, Johnny Gaudreau and Drew Doughty also scored to help the Pacific Division win the NHL All-Star Game with a 5-2 victory Sunday over the Atlantic Division.

Pacific goalies Marc-Andre Fleury and Mike Smith allowed just four goals in two games as their team claimed the $1-million prize shared by the winner of the four-team divisional 3-on-3 tournament.

The Canucks’ Boeser, the only rookie among 15 first-time allstars, also had a goal in the Pacific’s 5-2 semifinal victory over the Central Division and was named MVP. Edmonton’s Connor McDavid had four assists. Mike Green had two goals for the Atlantic.

Players walked the red carpet, posing for pictures and signing autographs before entering Amalie Arena for the first all-Star game played in Tampa since 1999, the last of Wayne Gretzky’s 18 appearances in the mid-season showcase that shifts to San Jose next season.

With the Lightning ’s Jon Cooper coaching the Atlantic Division and the team with the NHL’s best record represented by a league-high four players, the sellout crowd of 19,092 roared its approval when the Atlantic-Metropolitan semifinal began with goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, plus forwards Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and Steven Stamkos on the ice at the same time.

Kucherov’s hat trick in the 7-4 semifinal victory was the first for an all-star game since the NHL adopted the 3-on-3 format in 2016.

Point, Toronto’s Auston Matthews and Buffalo’s Jack Eichel also scored for the Atlantic, which rallied from a 3-1 deficit after Vasilevskiy allowed early goals to Sidney Crosby, Claude Giroux and Alex Ovechkin.