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Out of this World Bure's hat trick sparks 9-4 rout of North Americans
Posted: Monday February 07, 2000 02:12 AM
TORONTO (AP) -- Three goals, two brothers, one special moment in an NHL All-Star game that, for a change, was something more than an unexciting shootout. Pavel Bure scored three goals, two set up by little brother Valeri, and goaltender Olaf Kolzig played a rare shutout period as the World team turned the 50th All-Star game into an uncommon rout, dominating North America 9-4 on Sunday. "That's why I got MVP, he set me up a lot," Pavel Bure said, nudging his little brother. The Bure brothers nearly connected for another goal in a four-goal World third period, but Valeri disobeyed big brother's instructions by passing up an open shot to try to feed Pavel again. "Younger brother never listens to older brother, you know how that is," said Valeri, who plays for Calgary and insists he would take less pay to play alongside Pavel in Florida. "I thought it would be even better if he got a fourth goal." Except for the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, the Bures have not played together since their days with the once-famous Red Army team. Valeri joined the Russian team at age 16, when Pavel already was a star. "I'm his biggest fan," Valeri Bure said. "It's easy to play with him, 99 percent of time give him the puck he scores a goal." Bure's hat trick was the 11th in All-Star history, but the fourth in four years in a game that has increasingly emphasized offense, with an average of 16 goals scored over the last 10 years.
That's what made Kolzig's shutout third period so unusual, as he faced only eight shots and stopped them all as the World stretched a 5-4 lead at the start of the period. "We got some great goaltending," said World coach Scotty Bowman, who coached in an All-Star game for an unprecedented fifth decade. "He (Kolzig) made some tough saves and really distinguished himself out there." Pavol Demitra of St. Louis scored his second goal and Miroslav Satan of Buffalo and Radek Bonk of Ottawa also scored in the third period against Mike Richter, the only goaltender to not allow a goal in Saturday night's skills competition. The five-goal decision followed close victories by North America, 8-6 in 1999 and 8-7 in 1998, in the first two All-Star games played under the present format. In a game where defense is an afterthought and hitting is totally forgotten as players are as concerned with preventing injuries as they are scoring goals, hometown goaltender Curtis Joseph of the Maple Leafs made 20 saves in a busy first period, yet still trailed 3-2. With icings waved off and the play constantly flowing from end-to-end with no checking or face-offs to interfere, it took only 11 minutes to play the first nine minutes of clock time - an unheard of pace for a regular-season game. The first and only penalty wasn't assessed until 5:51 of the third period, when Colorado's Sandis Ozolinsh of the World team was called for hooking. St. Louis goaltender Roman Turek, initially left off the World team despite owning better statistics than Tommy Salo of Edmonton or Kolzig of Washington, started for the injured Dominik Hasek of Buffalo and was outstanding despite yielding goals to Joe Sakic and Jeremy Roenick. Turek stopped breakaways by Whitney and Owen Nolan, giving his World teammates time to open a 2-0 lead on goals by Demitra at 3:12 and NHL scoring leader Jaromir Jagr of Pittsburgh at 10:50. "A lot of action, a lot of shots," Turek said of the almost nonstop up-and-down flow. "I think it's more like European hockey." Jagr and Pavel Bure were part of the Legends on Ice film clip that opened the ABC-TV telecast and drew extended cheers inside the Air Canada Centre. The short film depicted Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe trekking to a frozen pond for a pickup game, only to stumble upon Jagr, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya and Pavel Bure already playing. The legends yield the ice to the younger generation, a symbolic passing of the torch that followed Lemieux's retirement in 1997 and Gretzky's last year. Pavel Bure saw the clip, and said, "It wasn't just a commercial, it was something bigger. It's like history, it's like changing generations. It meant a lot to me." Bure smiled as he talked about standing on the pond for two hours to film the clip. "We used to play on a pond, too, in Russia," Pavel Bure said. "Sometimes, my brother and I would skip school, stay home and play hockey." St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville, a World assistant coach, watched the short film on the scoreboard above the ice and said, "I almost got a tear in my eye." Gretzky, who retired last year, was missing from the All-Star lineup for the first time in 19 years. But he drew an extended ovation when his No. 99 was officially retired for every NHL team during a pregame ceremony. Unlike the other major all-star games, the NHL format sometimes puts regular-season teammates on opposing teams. That's how Toronto's Dimitri Yushkevich beat Joseph, his Toronto teammate, on the goal that put the World ahead 3-1 at 14:35. "He's been setting me up in practice," Joseph said. "He hasn't scored on me all year." Pavel Bure's first two goals, in a span of 8:05 at the start of the second period, came against goaltender Martin Brodeur of New Jersey and put the World ahead 5-2. But the North America team closed again to within one goal, at 5-4, as Tony Amonte of Chicago scored at 12:14 and Whitney at 17:08, with Salo in goal. Besides the memorable opening clip, the ABC telecast featured live in-game interviews with the coaches and players, some of whom answered questions submitted via the Internet.
Asked if he would give up his All-Star jersey to see Gretzky
play one more time, New Jersey rookie Scott Gomez said, "Yes."
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