Ducks’ Selanne Takes All-Star Break Literally

The goals were great, but Mighty Duck winger Teemu Selanne was a bit sheepish about the sports utility vehicle that went to the most valuable player of the NHL All-Star Game.

Call it an embarrassment of riches for Selanne, who races touring cars in his native Finland in the off-season. He didn’t want to say how many cars he owns. But his Orange County-based fleet just grew by one.

“I wasn’t sure who was going to win that truck,” Selanne said after scoring three goals for the World All-Stars, who lost to the North American All-Stars, 8-7, Sunday at General Motors Place.

“They usually don’t give that [the MVP award] to a player from the losing team. I was surprised to hear it was me. It was a lot of fun. I really had fun this weekend.”

Fun? That’s something that has been in short supply for Selanne recently. The Ducks have struggled, winning only four of their last 21 games. Selanne hasn’t had a goal in five consecutive games.

But the pressure was off Sunday. For once, he didn’t have to score three goals for his team to be competitive.

Best of all might have been playing with fellow Finns Jere Lehtinen of the Dallas Stars and Saku Koivu of the Montreal Canadiens. It’s a line you can expect to see for Finland next month at the Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

“It’s nice to see the other Finns here and to hang around together,” said Selanne, who is tied for the NHL lead with Philadelphia’s John LeClair with 33 goals. “It was just a relaxing time and a chance to have fun. It wasn’t like we had to focus on the next game like during the season.”

Perhaps that’s why Selanne’s goals seemed to come with startling quickness and ease.

He slipped behind the defense 53 seconds into the game, accepted a pass from Koivu and tucked a point-blank shot beneath North American All-Star goaltender Patrick Roy.

About three minutes later, Selanne sent a missile over Roy’s right shoulder.

In the second period, he tapped a cross-ice feed from the right wing from Lehtinen past Dallas goalie Ed Belfour.

“Maybe this will give me a big confidence boost,” said Selanne, the first European-born player to be named MVP in an NHL All-Star game and to record a hat trick. “It’s been frustrating [in Anaheim]. There’s been lots of pressure.”