Heatley Is Hot Stuff

No matter what’s wrong with the NHL -- and its financial woes are well-documented and mind-numbing -- its players can produce moments of wonder and discovery that bode well for the future of the game itself.

Dany Heatley of the Atlanta Thrashers, all gangly limbs and gap-toothed smile, steered the All-Star weekend buzz away from flailing franchises and toward the generation that will succeed Mario Lemieux and other aging stars as the NHL’s leading lights.

Although the West beat Heatley and the East, 6-5, in a shootout at the Office Depot Center, Heatley tied an All-Star game record with four goals and added an assist, besides scoring a goal in the shootout against Marty Turco.

Although Mighty Duck winger Paul Kariya’s shootout goal over the glove of East goalie and former Anaheim teammate Patrick Lalime and a subsequent miss by former King Olli Jokinen against Turco clinched the victory for the West, Heatley was the star of All-Stars on Sunday.

The youngest player to record a hat trick in an All-Star game at 22 years 12 days -- one day younger than Wayne Gretzky was when he scored four times in Uniondale, N.Y., on Feb. 8, 1983 -- Heatley was voted the game’s most valuable player.

“I would have paid to see him,” East teammate Jeremy Roenick said. “I felt like a fan. He did a great job. And the great thing is, he’s an even better person than he is a hockey player.”

Heatley, chosen second overall in the 2000 entry draft, played on a line with Florida’s Jokinen and Washington’s Jaromir Jagr as if they had known each other for years, not hours. In a game that featured some legitimate hits and was especially intense in the last 15 minutes, Heatley was all over the ice.

He beat goalie Patrick Roy through the five-hole for his first goal and knocked a bouncing puck out of the air for his second, also against Roy in the first period. He secured his hat trick in the second period against Jocelyn Thibault by converting a pass in the slot from Jokinen, and finished off another pass from Jokinen on the move for his final goal, which tied the score, 4-4, at 13:58 of the second period.

Jokinen had a goal and three assists, and Jagr had three assists. The Kings’ Mathieu Schneider assisted on goals by Mike Modano and Marian Gaborik.

“I was just happy to get the first one,” said the 6-foot-3, 205-pound Heatley, last season’s rookie of the year. “After that, they just kept going in. I kept cruising around and shooting the puck.”

There was more to it than that, to be sure. “He was fantastic,” said West forward Bill Guerin of the Dallas Stars. “He played great. It’s nice to see a young guy like that come in and steal the show.”

A few years ago, Heatley was watching the show from afar. He mused about having bid at an auction two years ago on a stick that belonged to Jagr only to be disappointed, but he got one this season.

“It was even better to play with him,” said Heatley, who was born in Germany but grew up in Calgary, Canada. “It was pretty special to be on the same line with him.

“I thought I would come in here and have fun. It was awesome.”

The back-and-forth pattern produced an entertaining show, and the third period bristled with energy and a few thumping hits. “It certainly heated up in the last 10, 12 minutes,” said defenseman Al MacInnis, who gave the West a 5-4 lead at 1:26 of the third period with a slap shot from the left circle. “It turned into a great game.”

Jokinen brought the East even at 9:38 after a pass from Jagr put him in alone against Turco. But Turco and Lalime hunkered down for the rest of the period.

“It was a blast,” Schneider said. “It got exciting there at the end.”

Kariya added the final dollop of excitement in the shootout. After misses by Sergei Fedorov of the West and Alexei Kovalev of the East, Mats Naslund scored for the West and Heatley matched it. Guerin gave the West a 2-1 edge, and Miroslav Satan of the East was stopped by Turco. Kariya then rifled a shot over Lalime’s glove, and Jokinen couldn’t beat Turco.

“I beat him low, stick [side] in the skills contest,” Kariya said. “Patty played in Anaheim, and we went through numerous breakaway battles after practices. I told him I’d keep going low, stick until I beat him, but I did the opposite. He was basically on the other post.

“Afterward I said, ‘Sorry, Patty, I had to switch it up.’ ”

No apology needed for Kariya -- or for this game.

“This is one of the best All-Star games I’ve ever played,” said Kariya, who has participated in seven. “It was a great game and Dany Heatley put on a great show for the fans.”