The Great One Is Star Among Stars

The boards were for deflecting pucks, going largely unrattled by bodies.

Goaltenders faced more outnumbered rushes than Custer had to deal with at Little Big Horn.

Defensemen did their Nolan Ryan imitations, pitching no-hitters, and referee Paul Devorski’s only real function was to drop the puck occasionally after television timeouts.

The NHL missed a bet. It could have sold tickets in the penalty box.

The skating was as slow as the traffic back to Retirement City in St. Petersburg, save for occasional, very brief forays.

And Wayne Gretzky scored a goal and had two assists to somehow legitimize the 49th NHL All-Star game, won by the North American team, 8-6, over the World team on Sunday.

The North Americans divided up a $250,000 pot in the winner-take-all affair.

One of Gretzky’s assists was on a pass to Rob Blake, who scored the North Americans’ seventh goal, the game-decider.

It was a familiar scene when Gretzky was Blake’s teammate with the Kings, but one that last unfolded in 1994, before Gretzky was sent on a trip to New York, via St. Louis.

“It’s always good,” Blake said of playing with Gretzky. “He always seems to find everybody.”

In this case, he found Blake trailing two other North Americans, both of whom drew World team company. That left Blake open.

“It’s just like he knew that was going to be,” said Blake, whose goal came at 14:23 of the second period. “He always knows.”

What he doesn’t know is if it will be his last All-Star game. Or his last season.

“I play against him, so I know he is not,” said North American goalie Martin Brodeur, of New Jersey. “As a player, when you play against him he [still] takes you apart. He can win games by himself by controlling the puck and he showed it tonight.”

And if it’s Gretzky’s last, the next Gretzky is. . .

. . . Paul Kariya of the Mighty Ducks, who had a goal and could have had two others if not for the spectacular efforts of World goalies Dominik Hasek and Arturs Irbe.

“I don’t think about any of that,” said Kariya of heir-apparent status. “You guys in the media just mention that to me once in a while. . . . All I know is that he made some passes that had us shaking our heads.”

Or it could be. . . .

. . . Teemu Selanne of the Mighty Ducks, who also had a goal for the World team and knows he’s going to have to put up with some ribbing.

“Somehow it’s not so important to win this game,” he insisted. “If we wanted to win this game, we could have done a little better.”

Or maybe. . . .

. . . Mike Modano of the Dallas Stars, who also had a goal--the game’s first--and three assists and wasn’t worried about Gretzky. He was more concerned that North American Coach Ken Hitchcock, his coach with the Stars, takes notice.

“It’s a total 180 from the way we play at Dallas,” he said of the Star system, which relies on defense and puts a governor on any Dallas player with offensive aspirations.

“It’s kind of fun to go back to playing the way we used to play.”

Hitchcock’s All-Star system might have lasted long enough to get to the Tampa airport. When the Kings face Dallas on Wednesday, it’s defense time again.

Luc Robitaille of the Kings, who was on the outside looking in until he was issued an invitation late Thursday, then assisted on Modano’s game-opening goal and scored on a pass from Jeremy Roenick at 10:06 to give North America a lead it never lost.

“I felt pretty good tonight, but I knew I’d only get two or three shifts a period, so I had to take advantage of them,” Robitaille said.

His goal came on Roenick’s drop pass between the legs, the kind of pass you seldom see in a regular-season game.

“But you might from him,” Robitaille said. “He’s that good.”

Kariya’s goal made it 3-1, and Mike Recchi of Montreal made it 4-1 in a first period in which the North Americans pounded Hasek with 19 shots, several of them from point-blank range, once on a two-on-none situation.

“We bet I wouldn’t hit anybody,” said Roenick of Phoenix teammate Keith Tkachuk. “I won the bet.”

Yeah, but his hit didn’t exactly bruise World defenseman Alexei Zhitnik.

Then it was Irbe’s turn, and he gave up goals by Ray Bourque, Gretzky and Blake, countered with goals from Selanne, Pavol Demitra and Mattias Ohlund.

Mats Sundin scored against Ed Belfour to cut the score to 7-5, countered by a goal by former King and current Dallas Star Darryl Sydor, with Sergei Zubov finishing out the scoring at 4:20.

Then--shhhhh, don’t tell anybody--the North Americans started trapping on defense.

“We had to protect that lead,” said Blake, trying without much luck to keep a straight face. “We had to shut them down.”

Said Hitchcock: “I heard [World Coach] Lindy Ruff was accusing us of trapping today.”

Rebutted Ruff of the Buffalo Sabres: “I was an eyewitness. I got that on film.”

It wasn’t exactly a checking clinic--North American defenseman Al MacInnis was hooted at by teammates for drawing a penalty for tripping in the third period, which didn’t keep them from stampeding for power-play time--but it seemed to delight the 19,758 on hand.

They came to see a show, and they saw that the show had a star in Gretzky. And some understudies.

And a world-wide stage in which the World came out second-best.

* THE NHL

Gretzky was a fan and player favorite, writes Helene Elliott. Page 6

* NOTES Page 6