NHL All-Star Game scoring record set in Columbus with 29 goals

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The 60th NHL All-Star Game was an offensive affair.

Take that any way you’d like.

The teams captained by Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks and Nick Foligno of the Columbus Blue Jackets set a new League record for most combined goals in an All-Star Game, in a 17-12 victory for Team Toews on Sunday at Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

Patrick Kane’s (Foligno) goal at 13:09 of the third period was No. 27 for the night, breaking the 26-goal record set in 2001 during the North America vs. The World format.

We don’t want to say the 29-goal night was overwhelming, but at one point the Civil War-dressed workers that fire a cannon after every home-team goal seemed to simply forget to do so. Maybe they ran out of ammo; the teams certainly didn't.

John Tavares of Team Toews became the sixth player in history to score four goals in the NHL All-Star Game. Tavares scored once in the first period, twice in the second and another in the third period.

He joins some elite goal-scoring company: Wayne Gretzky, Campbell, 1983; Mario Lemieux, Wales, 1990; Vincent Damphousse, Campbell, 1991; Mike Gartner, Wales, 1993, and Dany Heatley, East, 2003.

After two days of goofy fun at the NHL Fantasy Draft and the skills competition, the Sunday was a bit of a snoozer. The goals were plentiful, the skating was casual and the crowd only popped for the hometown heroes.

So basically it was the NHL All-Star Game.

The first period saw a combined eight goals, four by each team. Ryan Johansen (Foligno) had two of them, while Roberto Luongo (Toews) made a few quality glove saves. Radim Vrbata (Foligno) opened the scoring at 3:09 of the first period with his first all-star goal.

The second period featured 11 goals, an All-Star Game record and a metric ton of sarcasm.

Team Foligno goalie Marc-Andre Fleury of the Pittsburgh Penguins tied an ignominious record in giving up seven goals in a period. That tied Mike Vernon’s 1990 record for the Campbell Conference. The partisan Columbus crowd, which considers the Penguins arch rivals, began mockingly cheering his routine saves.

Team Toews received goals from Ryan Suter, Tyler Seguin, Rick Nash, Filip Forsberg, two from Tavares and one from Jakub Voracek.

The third period was just as porous, as the goals kept piling up at a record pace.

Here’s the full scoring sheet for the game. Try not to strain your eyes:

A few call-outs:

- Philadelphia Flyers forward Jakub Voracek, the NHL's leading scorer, had a hat-trick and a six-point night.

- Jonathan Toews and Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins) had 5-point nights.

- Mark Giordano of the Calgary Flames led all skaters with a plus-5.

- Tough minus-5's for Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Dustin Byfuglien.

With two goals and two assists, Team Foligno and Blue Jackets center Ryan Johansen was voted by fans as the game’s MVP. He won a Honda. So now we can drive far, far away from this game.