Monsters, Central Division Win The 2017 AHL All-Star Game

The Central Division reigns supreme.

The four divisions of the AHL gathered for their yearly All-Star festivities. Yesterday featured the Skills Competition, where everybody showed off their individual talents. Today, they showed how to work as a team.

The rules of the AHL All-Star Game were that each team would play each other in Round Robin play. There would be two five-minute periods to play. If still scoreless, there would be a shootout. After that, the two teams with the best records would play each other in the championship game in a six-minute game.

The Central would drop the first game 2-1 to the Atlantic, as Charlotte goaltender Michael Leighton would get caught in two 2-on-1 situations and get scored on both times. A moral victory for the Monsters’ fans is the fact that Oliver Bjorkstrand scored the Central’s lone goal.

The Central would move forward and play the North next. The Central needed this win to stay alive, as they would get The much-needed victory. After a Bailey goal for the North, Alex Tuch would score in the second frame to send it to a shootout. Anton Forsberg would block two of the three shot attempts to lead the Central to a 2-1 shootout victory.

The Central would handle the Pacific after jumping out to a 4-1 lead early. Goals from Grand Rapids’ Matt Lorito, Chicago’s Kevin Agostino, Iowa’s Alex Tuch and Oliver Bjorkstrand led the Central’s 5-2 win.

For the championship, the Central would rematch the Atlantic. The six-minute frenzy was scoreless, so the teams would head to a shootout. Anton Forsberg would put the clamps on the Atlantic and Matt Lorito would score the only goal in the shootout, as the Central would win the AHL All-Star Game by a final score of 1-0.