REUTERS — Dany Heatley tied a record with four goals in regulation time and added another in the first shootout in All-Star history, but it could not prevent the Eastern Conference from falling 6-5 to the Western Conference Sunday.
The Atlanta Thrashers left wing was selected as the MVP of the 53rd NHL All-Star Game but shootout goals by Markus Naslund of Vancouver, Bill Guerin of Dallas and Paul Kariya of Anaheim gave the West the victory.
The game revived the old East-West format after five years of the Rest of the World against North America.
Mike Gartner (1993), Vincent Damphousse (1991), Mario Lemieux (1990) and Wayne Gretzky (1983) are the only other players to have scored four goals in an All-Star Game.
Olli Jokinen of the Florida Panthers delighted the sellout crowd of 19,250 at the Office Depot Center by scoring on Dallas’s Marty Turco on a breakaway with 10:22 left in regulation time to tie the game for the East.
Heatley, who scored the first four goals for the East, also assisted on Jokinen’s tally.
A five-minute, sudden-death overtime was scoreless, leading to the Olympic-style shootout.
Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Kovalev and Miroslav Satan all missed their shots for the East, with only Heatley beating Turco.
Naslund, Guerin and Kariya all connected on Ottawa Senators goalie Patrick Lalime during the shootout, and the East clinched victory when Jokinen rapped a shot against the goal post on the East’s fourth attempt.
Peter Forsberg of Colorado, Mike Modano of Dallas, Marian Gaborik of Minnesota and Ed Jovanovski of Vancouver scored the Western Conference goals in regulation time.
Heatley is 22 years, 12-days-old, making him the youngest player to score a hat trick in the All-Star Game. He is one day younger than Gretzky was when he first accomplished the feat.
Before leaving for the NHL, Heatley played at the University of Wisconsin under Jeff Sauer for two seasons from 1999-2001. Heatley recorded 52 goals and 113 points as a Badger in 77 games played. He was named WCHA rookie of the year in 2000, while receiving second team NCAA All-American honors. Heatley was named an NCAA All-American in 2001.
