HELSINKI – Yevgeni Malkin is the man of the tournament. After winning gold with Russia, he was also named MVP and Best Forward of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship.
Malkin also made it to the World Championship All-Star Team for the third time after 2007 and 2010. The Russian had 19 points (11 goals, 8 assists) throughout the tournament to win the scoring title before surprising Norwegian forward Patrick Thoresen, who had seven goals and 11 assists for 18 points. Thoresen and Sweden’s Henrik Zetterberg also made it to the All-Star Team.
Thoresen became the first Norwegian ever to be on an All-Star Team in a top division event of any category.
Slovakia’s Jan Laco was named to the All-Star Team and won the award as Best Goalkeeper of the event. The 30-year-old was in the goal for most of the time in his first IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship and helped his team advance to the gold medal game. He was close behind Russia’s Semyon Varlamov (93.99%) in save percentage with 93.55% prior to the gold medal game.
Slovak giant Zdeno Chara was voted Best Defenceman and named to the All-Star Team along with Russian back Ilya Nikulin.
Individual Awards selected by the Tournament Directorate: Best Goalkeeper: Jan Laco, Slovakia Best Defenceman: Zdeno Chara, Slovakia Best Forward: Yevgeni Malkin, Russia
All-Star Team selected by media vote: Goal: Jan Laco (SVK) Defence: Zdeno Chara (SVK) – Ilya Nikulin (RUS) Forwards: Yevgeni Malkin (RUS) – Patrick Thoresen (NOR) – Henrik Zetterberg (SWE) MVP: Yevgeni Malkin (RUS)
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