Team Lidstrom wins NHL All-Star Game, 11-10
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Sorry Team Staal, Team Lidstrom felt right at home in Carolina.
Eric Staal had the No. 1 pick in the inaugural NHL All-Star fantasy draft and the unconditional support of his hometown Carolina Hurricanes fans behind him.
Still, he was left with a loss to a proven winner -- Nicklas Lidstrom.
Danny Briere, Jonathan Toews, and Martin St. Louis scored during a four-minute span of the third period to lift Team Lidstrom over Team Staal 11-10 on Sunday in the NHL All-Star game.
Minnesota Wild representatives, defenseman Brent Burns and right wing Martin Havlat, had four assists for the winning team. Havlat had three, including one on the game-winning goal.
Lidstrom can add this victory to the four Stanley Cup titles and six Norris trophies he has won with the Detroit Red Wings.
Maybe Staal's pick of Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward with the No. 1 selection in the fantasy draft wasn't such a good idea, after all. Tampa Bay's Steven Stamkos, the league leader with 38 goals, went with the second pick to Lidstrom, and Stamkos scored the goal that made it 6-6 in the second period.
Ward could hardly be blamed for the four goals he gave up in the first. Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury also allowed four in the opening 20 minutes of a typically defenseless All-Star game.
One consolation for the Staals: Chicago's Patrick Sharp claimed MVP honors in a losing cause after he posted a goal and two assists.
With the team in white named after Staal, the Carolina fans decked out in red hardly seemed to care that Sidney Crosby and his Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Evgeni Malkin were missing be-cause of injuries.
Staal's club had a 4-0 lead in the first, that was gone before the intermission, and an 8-7 edge after Kris Letang's second goal early in the third.
Then Lidstrom's club staged its second comeback and grabbed a late third-period lead -- only to have Team Staal attempt a rally.
After Rick Nash brought Team Staal within a goal with 4:49 remaining, Loui Eriksson sealed it by scoring into an empty net at 18:49. That insurance was necessary because Staal gave the RBC Center one more reason to yell when he made it 11-10 with his fourth career All-Star goal with 34 seconds remaining.
Early in the second it appeared as though Anaheim's Jonas Hiller was in for the same anguish as all the other goalies. Sharp, who had two assists in the first period, finished things himself 1:18 in when he took a pass from Philadelphia's Claude Giroux in the left circle and snapped in a shot.
Letang pushed Team Staal's lead to 6-4 at 6:10 by ripping a shot off the post and in. That would be the final blemish on Hiller's ultimately impressive performance.
Hiller made acrobatic moves in the final five minutes of the second period to deny 18-year-old Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner and Columbus' Nash. Hiller made his MVP pitch by finishing with 15 saves on 17 shots.
