The NHL shows that it is young at heart

ATLANTA -- A decent game broke out here Sunday, a surprising turn of events that made the NHL’s 56th All-Star game one of its most entertaining in recent years.

Competitive All-Star games are rare in hockey because these extravaganzas tend to lack urgency or oomph, and hockey loses much of its attraction when physical play is replaced by the matador defense that usually prevails.

Too many goals, and it becomes an exercise in higher math.

Too few, and it becomes boring.

This one, an 8-7 victory for the East at Philips Arena, turned out just right.

It had healthy doses of skill, teamwork and good goaltending and featured enough interesting characters to boost a league that desperately needs to sell itself and its players to a generally uncaring audience in the United States.

The East, the favorite of hometown Atlanta Thrashers fans, took a big early lead. The veterans in the West locker room scolded the kids to pick it up, and those kids responded with a strong comeback that produced a 5-5 tie early in the third period.

After the West took a 7-6 lead, the East tied it late and won it even later, with the winning goal scored by a former Thrasher, Marc Savard. There were familiar faces for local fans to applaud, new faces to become acquainted with, and plenty of drama and intensity to keep everyone happy.

“We said before the game we wanted it to be a better hockey game and be quicker. I thought it was the fastest one that I’ve played in so far,” said Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames, the West captain and a four-time All-Star.

“At first, nobody was shooting and they were over-passing. You’re always going to get extra passes because everyone has such great vision, but I thought as it went on, we definitely wanted to make a good game of it and try to come back and win.”

Officially, there were only two hits, one by each team, but a third-period hit by the West’s Ed Jovanovski had East forward Ilya Kovalchuk jokingly complaining that Jovanovski was trying to kill him.

“It’s not very good,” he said.

But it made for good theater for the sellout crowd of 18,644 and fans who were lucky enough to find it on Versus before that network returned to its usual bull-riding shows.

There was respectable defense and an eight-save second-period shutout by Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks and the West, a novelty in itself.

“Usually you get 2-on-0s somewhere. There were no 2-on-0s,” Iginla said. “Usually there’s three-on-ones left and right, but guys were backchecking.”

Some of that was a conscious effort, some of it the players’ natural competitiveness coming to the surface.

“I think we understand the opportunity, with the partnership with the league and growing the game,” Ducks defenseman Chris Pronger said. “And trying to get into new markets, and grow the markets that we’re in now, Southern markets like this.

“It’s an opportunity for us to showcase our product and showcase the talent that we have, and I think you saw a lot of that.”

Although Pittsburgh Penguins standout Sidney Crosby -- the anchor of much of the league’s marketing efforts -- missed the game because of an injured ankle, a group of young stars stepped in to carry the NHL flag.

Carolina Hurricanes forward Eric Staal, a two-time All-Star, scored two goals and set up Savard’s winner with 20.9 seconds left in the third period. He was voted the game’s most valuable player, an honor that could just as easily have gone to Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who scored three times for the losing team.

Dynamic Alexander Ovechkin of Washington and the East, also a two-time All-Star and among the nine players younger than 23 years old, scored two goals. Kovalchuk won cheers from the hometown crowd with an assist on the final East goal, scored by Staal with 7:25 to play.

Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf won praise from both rooms by scoring a goal and an assist, and the list goes on.

“You see these young kids, and the other young guys over in the East, and it’s amazing what they can do and the amount of talent that there is in the league,” said Jason Arnott of Nashville and the West.

“The league’s going to be fine. It’s going to take off in a little bit -- and Sidney wasn’t even here. So it’s unbelievable to see the amount of talent that’s out there.”

Detroit and West defenseman Nick Lidstrom, the most experienced All-Star in this game, with 10 appearances, also came away believing that the NHL will be in good hands thanks to the some of the kids who were out there Sunday.

“Some of the young players that the league is trying to promote, it’s not that they’re looking for players. They’re good enough to be those kind of players the league is trying to make them into,” Lidstrom said.

“I think we’ve seen that some of the young kids are having a big impact on the league.”

They’ve already had a positive impact in making Sunday’s game something out of the ordinary.

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Helene Elliott can be reached at helene.elliott@latimes.com.

To read previous columns by Elliott, go to latimes.com/elliott.