By ALAN ROBINSON, AP Sports Writer
February 8, 2004
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- In a relatively low-scoring NHL All-Star game befitting what is jokingly called hockey's dead-puck era, 43-year-old Mark Messier turned back the clock to a different time.
Messier, who was winning Stanley Cups before some of the other All-Stars were born, had a goal and an assist and Daniel Alfredsson had two goals to lead the Eastern Conference past the Western Conference 6-4 Sunday.
All-Star MVP Joe Sakic of Colorado had a hat trick for the West, but the three goals weren't enough to prevent the East's fifth victory in the last six All-Star games played with an East vs. West format. The 54 All-Star games have been playing under varying formats.
If it was his last All-Star game -- and, perhaps the NHL's last for a while as it prepares for what could be months of divisive labor talks -- at least Messier left behind a lasting memory with his sixth multiple-point game in 15 All-Star appearances.
They like to call Minnesota the State of Hockey and, fittingly, the NHL's All-Star game there reflected the state of its hockey, too. It was only the second All-Star game with fewer than 10 goals in the last 19 seasons; there were nine goals scored in 1996.
Messier set up the game's first goal, Adrian Aucoin's shot that eluded goalie Marty Turco's glove as he swiped at it in the first period, to set an All-Star game record with his 14th assist, one more than Ray Bourque had in 19 games.
Messier, who was already a Stanley Cup winner with Edmonton when 19-year-old Columbus All-Star Rick Nash was born, later tied it at 3 with the first of three consecutive East goals in the final 6:12 of the second period against Nashville goalie Thomas Vokoun. Vokoun let in four of the 12 shots he faced in his All-Star debut.
Messier's goal, his sixth in an All-Star game and his first since 1998, gave him 20 career points -- breaking a tie with Gordie Howe for third place in All-Star history.
Gary Roberts, who retired for the 1996-97 season because of a neck injury but came back a year later, put the East ahead by slamming Alfredsson's long rebound past Vokoun less than a minute after Messier's goal. Alfredsson, the Ottawa star who played most of the game on a line with rival Mats Sundin of Toronto, made it 5-3 late in the second by swiping in a Sundin shot that lay in the crease between Vokoun's pads.
Despite the big games by players who are 22 years apart, and a goal and an assist by Roberts in his first All-Star appearance in 11 years, the game reflected how defense now rules the NHL.
There were only two goals scored in the first period against goalies Martin Brodeur of the East and Turco and only two in the third as goalies Jose Theodore of the East and Dwayne Roloson of the West -- and All-Star host Minnesota -- made a series of exceptional saves.
The only goal against Brodeur was by Sakic, who tied it at 1 with his first of his consecutive goals for the West. Sakic's three goals equaled his total in his first eight All-Star games.
Though the final score would be a shootout by today's standards in a sport where goal-scoring had dropped by 2 1/2 goals per game to an average of five in the last 15 years, it was far below that of the 16-goal average of the last 14 games. Only three years ago, North America beat the World all-stars by the football like-score of 14-12 in Denver, a game derided by hockey purists.
Sunday's game actually had some contact and some checking, a rarity in a mostly hitting-free game in which the last thing any player wants to do is get hurt.
After the East's Jeremy Roenick delivered a hard check on the West's Keith Tkachuk during the first period, Tkachuk responded by slamming Roenick into the boards, drawing one of the few big ovations from the sellout crowd.
The crowd gave Messier a standing ovation before the game, and cheered his goal, even though it came for the opposing East.
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Eastern Conference 6, Western Conference 4
