[Jlg-28]

Source: NHL.com

The State of Hockey" sure liked the state of hockey witnessed at the 54th NHL All-Star Game Sunday.

The capacity crowd at the Xcel Energy Center, home of the NHL's Minnesota Wild, basked in the wide-open, break-neck paced game put on by the NHL All-Stars.

The Eastern Conference came away with a 6-4 victory paced offensively by two goals and an assist from Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson. Toronto's Gary Roberts had a goal and an assist, with Leafs captain Mats Sundin picking up pair of assists. Mark Messier of the New York Rangers broke an All-Star record with his 14th All-Star assist and he also added a goal.

For the Western Conference, Colorado's Joe Sakic had the hat trick in the losing cause. Vancouver's Markus Naslund assisted on all three Sakic goals.

Sakic was named the Game's Most Valuable Player.

Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk solidified his reputation as an electrifying offensive player when he hauled in a loose puck and went coast-to-coast, bearing in on Western Conference goalie Dwayne Roloson of the host Minnesota Wild.

Kovalchuk made a nifty move and beat Roloson with a backhander to the stick side before crashing into the end boards, completing the dramatic play that made it 6-3 for the Eastern Conference.

But with so much offensive talent, you figured Kovalchuk's goal wouldn't be the last, and it wasn't as Sakic completed the 14th hat trick in All-Star competition at 7:22 to make it a 6-4 East lead.

The 1-1 first-period tie quickly became a thing of the past in the second as the goaltenders -- Nashville's Tomas Vokoun for the West and Montreal's Jose Theodore for the East -- were greeted rudely. Vokoun surrendered four goals and Theodore two as the East jumped to a 5-3 lead after two periods.

The East benefited from a fortunate bounce to grab a 2-1 lead just 51 seconds into the second period. Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson scored the unassisted goal as the East came across the blue line on a 3-on-2 break. Alfredsson slapped the puck at Vokoun with Toronto's Mats Sundin racing down the slot. But Alfredsson's shot struck the stick of a Western Conference defender and bounded into the net.

The fast pace that marked the first 20 minutes continued in the second period, as did the solid goaltending, as Vokoun came back to stop Kovalchuk on a partial break at 3:11.

The West solved Theodore at 5:44 of the second to tie the game for the second time. Once again it was Colorado's Joe Sakic teaming with Vancouver's Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi for goal, Sakic's second of the game.

Gaining the Eastern Conference zone, Naslund drew Montreal defenseman Sheldon Souray to him, clearing the slot for the breaking Sakic, whose shot beat Theodore high to the stick side.

At 11:47, Theodore flashed some leather to deny Columbus' Rick Nash, who broke in to Theodore's left and went from his backhand to his forehand in an attempt to lift the puck over Theodore.

By now, the players were racing up and down the ice with reckless abandon and the pucks began to find the back of the net. Shane Doan of the Phoenix Coyotes put the Western Conference on top for the first time at 13:02 when he pulled into the front of the net to Theodore's left, faked the defenseman and then sent the puck between the legs of Theodore.

It didn't take long for the Eastern Conference to roar back, 46 seconds to be exact, as New Jersey's Scott Niedermayer got some room top operate in the high slot of the Western Conference zone and deftly passed the puck down low to the Rangers' Mark Messier, who had slipped behind the West defense. Messier beat Vokoun for the sixth All-Star goal of his career. A laughing Messier retrieved the puck and proudly showed it on the Eastern Conference bench.

Less than a minute after Messier scored, the Eastern Conference jumped back into the lead as Toronto's Gary Roberts scored on assists from Alfredsson and Sundin at 14:41.

Alfredsson popped in a rebound at 18:04 of the period to push the East to a 5-3 lead. Sundin and Roberts assisted on Alfredsson's second of the game.

The New York connection of Rangers and Islanders got the Eastern Conference on the scoreboard at 5:44 of the first, with the Rangers' duo of Messier and Jaromir Jagr setting up the Islanders' Aucoin banked a loose puck off Western Conference goalie Marty Turco and into the met from the right post.

For Messier, the assist was the 14th of his legendary career, an NHL All-Star record.

At this point, both team decided they had settled in enough and turned the remainder of the first into a track meet.

Martin Brodeur, starting in goal for the East, made a couple huge saves with 16:12 remaining in the first as Naslund took a deft pass from Sakic and deflected the puck on a moving Brodeur. The New Jersey Devils goalie made the initial stop and also corralled Naslund's rebound attempt.

Sakic finally got the West on the scoreboard at 13:37. Sakic grabbed a loose puck off the skate of Eastern Conference defenseman Brian Rafalski and backhanded the puck past Brodeur to knot the score. Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi assisted on the goal.

Turco made 10 saves on the 11 shots, while Brodeur stopped nine of 10 as the starting netminders fared pretty well in what is usually in offensive show.

Another rarity was a couple of actual check as the East's Jeremy Roenick and the West's Keith Tkachuk collided on purpose a couple times and then joked about who threw the first hit and who retaliated.

for some reason it wouldn't let me add the image that i wanted to use

[Andy]

Very, very good game this year.

[Travis]

Still not as good as last years'....the 3rd period especially.

[Chris]

I thought it was an excellent game, but I didn't catch last year's so I can't really compare