The Pacific Division’s participation in the NHL All-Star Game’s 3-on-3 tournament with San Jose Sharks winger Timo Meier didn’t last long.
Meier, in his first all-star game, had a goal and an assist for the Pacific Division in a 6-4 loss to the Metropolitan Division in the first semifinal of the event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Meier scored at the 2:27 mark of the first 10-minute half and assisted on Jordan Eberle’s goal at the 4:27 mark of the second half that tied the game 3-3. But the Metropolitan team responded with three consecutive goals to advance to the final against either the Central or Atlantic division teams.
The team that wins the tournament, played at a pace nowhere near the level of an NHL regular-season game, earns a $1 million bonus.
The Pacific Division team had won the 3-on-3 tournament and the $1 million prize three times since the format for the event was first introduced at the 2016 All-Star Game in Nashville.
The Pacific team won in 2016 with Brent Burns and Joe Pavelski, and then-former Sharks winger John Scott was named the event’s Most Valuable Player. Burns was also part of the victorious Pacific Division team in 2018 in Tampa and Tomas Hertl, serving as a replacement for an injured Logan Couture, scored a combined five goals to help the Pacific team win in 2020 in St. Louis.
Meier on Saturday spent most of his playing time on the ice with Calgary Flames forward Johnny Gaudreau. The Pacific team, besides goalies John Gibson and Thatcher Demko of Anaheim and Vancouver, respectively, had just one defenseman, Alex Pietrangelo of the host Vegas Golden Knights.
After a few more days of downtime, Meier and the Sharks will reconvene for practices near the end of next week as they get ready for the unofficial second half of the season.
The Sharks went 3-4-3 in their final 10 games before the break and are going to have to string some wins together if they want to avoid missing the playoffs for a third straight season.
The Sharks (22-20-4) entered the break in sixth place in the Pacific Division with 48 points, seven points back of Anaheim for third place and four points back of Calgary for the second and final wild-card spot in the Western Conference. The top three teams in each division automatically qualify for the playoffs.
Six of the seven games San Jose plays this month are at home, starting with games vs. Evander Kane, Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 14, Vancouver on Feb. 17 and Vegas on Feb. 20.
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