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EVENTS
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DENVER (Ticker) -- Bill Guerin, Doug Weight and Tony Amonte painted the highest-scoring All-Star Game in NHL history red, white and blue. Guerin, the Boston Bruins' right wing, recorded the 12th hat trick in All-Star history and added a pair of assists to lead the North American Stars to a 14-12 triumph over the World Stars at the Pepsi Center. Three of only five Americans in the game, Guerin, Amonte and Weight combined for six goals and eight assists. They helped the North American squad avenge last year's 9-4 loss and extend its advantage in the series to 3-1. The 26 goals shattered the previous All-Star record of 22, set in 1993 at Montreal. Guerin, the winner of the fastest skater event in Saturday's SuperSkills Competition, had a goal in each period. He completed the second All-Star hat trick in as many years with 2:02 left in the third, banging in a loose puck after a rebound of Ed Jovanovski's shot squirted in front. A first-time All-Star, Guerin won a sport utility vehicle as the game's most valuable player. "It's a fairy tale," he said. "It's pretty hard to believe right now. I was thrilled to be picked to come and play this weekend. I just wanted to relax, enjoy being around the guys and have fun. "Like I said, all this, the trophy and the car and all that stuff, is icing on the cake. The best part about it was being around all the guys. They were great." Amonte, the Chicago Blackhawks' right wing, had two goals and two assists and Weight, Guerin's former linemate with the Edmonton Oilers, collected a goal and three assists. "Dougie and I are best of friends, and I really enjoyed playing together," Guerin said. "This was a nice opportunity, for us to play in an All-Star Game together and have a good friend, Tony Amonte, with us out there, too." "We had a plan," Amonte added. "Dougie said whoever gets the first goal, we're going to feed him all night. Unfortunately, Billy got the first one, so he was looking for him all third period." Theo Fleury of the New York Rangers, Luc Robitaille of the Los Angeles Kings and Simon Gagne of the Philadelphia Flyers chipped in two goals apiece for the North Americans. Mats Sundin of the Toronto Maple Leafs had two goals and two assists and Sergei Fedorov of the Detroit Red Wings also scored twice for the World All-Stars. "Maybe it was a little more open than I had expected, but it was a fun game," said Vancouver Canucks captain Markus Naslund of the World team. "It was pretty loose out there." Not surprisingly, the shootout featured a pair of record-tying 10-goal periods. The teams combined to score 10 times in the third, with Alexei Kovalev of the Pittsburgh Penguins getting the World team within 12-11 with 6:03 remaining. But Gagne got his second of the period at 17:07 and Guerin completed the sixth five-point game in All-Star history 51 seconds later. That enabled the North Americans to survive a last-second tally by Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom. Mario Lemieux holds the All-Star record with six points in 1988. Of the 36 non-goalies who suited up Sunday afternoon, only defensemen Scott Niedermayer of the New Jersey Devils, Janne Niinimaa of the Oilers and Marcus Ragnarsson of the San Jose Sharks failed to record a point. "I know," Niinimaa said. "Me and Teppo (Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Teppo Numminen) had a game plan going in. We were going to keep our end clean. It didn't work, and I didn't get any points, either." The 10-goal second period featured six in the first 8:36. Naslund gave the World team its first lead at 2:40, but the North Americans retaliated with the next three goals. Amonte started the spree at 3:25 when he beat first-year goaltender Roman Cechmanek of the Philadelphia Flyers with a blast from the edge of the right faceoff circle. Lemieux broke the 4-4 tie 88 seconds later, scoring his 12th career All-Star goal on a breakaway. Wayne Gretzky owns the record with 13 All-Star goals. "I just wanted to make sure we got him the puck as much as possible," linemate Brett Hull said of Lemieux, who was added to the team just nine games into his heralded comeback and led all players with nine shots. After Donald Audette of the Atlanta Thrashers failed to convert a pair of breakaways, Joe Sakic of the host Colorado Avalanche made it 6-4 at 6:59 of the second off a spectacular pass from Paul Kariya of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Kariya moved down the left side and faked a slap shot before making a backhanded, between-the-legs feed to set up Sakic's one-time blast from the top of the slot. "That's what the All-Star Game is for, to have fun out there and make plays that you wouldn't normally make in the regular season," Kariya said. There were six more goals before the end of the period, which matched the second period of the 1997 contest at San Jose as the most explosive in All-Star history. Sergei Samsonov of the Bruins scored for the World team at 8:08, but Amonte got his second of the afternoon 28 seconds later when he banked a shot off a defender's skate. Amonte also set up Guerin's second goal at 14:36, but Ziggy Palffy of the Kings and Fedorov sandwiched tallies around another by Robitaille as the World stars got within 9-7 entering the third period. Fleury gave the North American Stars a 1-0 lead 49 seconds into the first period on the game's first shot, capping the first of countless odd-man rushes. It was nearly six minutes before the next whistle and 7:12 before Sundin tied it off a perfect feed from fellow Swede Fredrik Modin of the Tampa Bay Lightning. North America answered with two goals in a 38-second span as Guerin broke the deadlock at 11:22 and Robitaille made it 3-1 at the 12-minute mark. But the World struck twice in 21 seconds to tie it before the end of the period. Sundin broke down the left side on a 2-on-1, held the puck and curled a shot between goaltender Patrick Roy's pads. With 2:34 left, Peter Forsberg beat Roy and got a mischievous grin from his Avalanche teammate. The teams combined for 98 shots, four short of the 1994 record. "We made some great saves, all six goalies, and they still scored 26 goals," said Martin Brodeur of the Devils, who stopped 18 of 23 shots. "Maybe (the score) was a little bit higher than ever before, but the skill that is on the ice is amazing." |
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