52nd National Hockey League All-Star Game



The 52nd National Hockey League All-Star Game took place on February 2, 2002, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The final score was World 8, North America 5. This was the last National Hockey League All-Star Game to have the North America vs. World All-Star format.

NHL YoungStars Game
The inaugural NHL YoungStars Game was played (replacing Heroes of Hockey old-timers game) featuring the future young stars of the NHL. The two teams were divided between Team Melrose and Team Fox. The game format had four skaters (and one goaltender) per side and the first two periods were for 12 minutes running time, and then the third period would run for 11 minutes, running time, plus a final minute of stop time. The teams were allowed a four-minute break between periods. If the score is tied after three periods, a sudden-death shootout will determine the winner. Team Melrose would defeat Team Fox by a score of 13–7, as Atlanta Thrashers' Ilya Kovalchuk would score six goals for Team Melrose, with one of them being on a penalty shot. Kovalchuk was named as the first-ever YoungStars MVP.

Super Skills Competition
The World All-Stars would win their fourth and last skills competition barely defeating the North American All-Stars by a score of 12–11. In the individual events, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim' Paul Kariya would win his fourth-straight Puck Control Relay event, while Carolina Hurricanes' Sami Kapanen would win his second Fastest Skater event and Detroit Red Wings' Sergei Fedorov would win his first Hardest Shot event. Two individual events would be shared as Calgary Flames' Jarome Iginla and Vancouver Canucks' Markus Naslund would share the Accuracy Shooting event title and Colorado Avalanche's Patrick Roy and Detroit Red Wings' Dominik Hasek would win the Goaltenders Competition after the Pass and Score and Breakaway Relay events.

Individual Event winners

 * Puck Control Relay - 🇨🇦Paul Kariya (Mighty Ducks of Anaheim)
 * Fastest Skater - 🇫🇮Sami Kapanen (Carolina Hurricanes) - 14.039 seconds
 * Accuracy Shooting - 🇨🇦Jarome Iginla (Calgary Flames)/🇸🇪Markus Naslund (Vancouver Canucks) - 4 hits, 6 shots
 * Hardest Shot - 🇷🇺Sergei Fedorov (Detroit Red Wings) - 101.5 mph
 * Goaltenders Competition - 🇨🇦Patrick Roy (Colorado Avalanche)/🇨🇿Dominik Hasek (Detroit Red Wings) - 1 GA, 9 shots

The game
The 52nd NHL All-Star Game was highlighted by Pittsburgh Penguins' Mario Lemieux's 13th career goal which tied Wayne Gretzky for the most goals scored in All-Star Game competition. Three players would put up three-point performances that included North American All-Stars Chicago Blackhawks' leftwinger Eric Daze (2–1–3) and San Jose Sharks' centre Vincent Damphousse (1–2–3), while Vancouver Canucks' left winger Markus Naslund (2–1–3) would be the only player for the World All-Stars to score three points. Daze who was appearing in his first All-Star Game, was chosen as All-Star MVP, becoming the first Blackhawk player to win the award since 1971 when Bobby Hull won the award.

Boxscore

 * Referees: Dave Jackson, Don Van Massenhoven
 * Linesmen: Andy McElman, Mark Paré
 * Television: ABC, CBC, SRC.