East trumps West at end

After forays into Dallas and Atlanta, the NHL All-Star game returned to a city steeped with hockey tradition for its 57th edition.

As part of the 100th-year celebration of the Montreal Canadiens, the weekend’s events culminated with the Eastern Conference’s 12-11 victory over the Western Conference in a shootout in front of a crowd of 21,273 at the Bell Centre on Sunday night.

The wide-open play on offense provided more excitement than usual with only the second shootout in All-Star game history. The game-winning score in the shootout came from the Canadiens’ Alex Kovalev, who was chosen the most valuable player.

The Eastern Conference was led by Kovalev and Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who each had two goals and an assist. Florida’s Jay Bouwmeester, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin and Boston’s Marc Savard each had three points.

“You can’t ask for a better package than this,” Kovalev said. “Get voted into the All-Star game by the fans, starting lineup, being the captain, get MVP. This is something you’re going to remember the rest of your life.”

The Western Conference, which trailed, 4-2, after one period, got three points each from Edmonton’s Sheldon Souray (two goals), San Jose’s Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton, Colorado’s Milan Hejduk and Columbus’ Rick Nash.

The Ducks, who had three starters for the Western Conference, were relatively quiet as Ryan Getzlaf and Scott Niedermayer each had an assist and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere gave up four goals on 11 first-period shots.

The lone Kings’ representative, Dustin Brown, had an assist.

“You could tell the game was picking up near the end and both teams kind of wanted to win,” said the Chicago Blackhawks’ Jonathan Toews, who had a third-period goal.

“The show was over so it was time to bear down and score, and it was awesome both ways. It’s been a couple of years since the West has won so we were pressing but unfortunately they have a lot of skill and it was tough to stop them in that shootout.”

After a scoreless overtime, Kovalev and Ovechkin scored against Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo in the shootout, and Boston’s Tim Thomas stopped Shane Doan and Rick Nash to give the East the victory.

Thomas’ effort earned him the victory, his second consecutive after winning in Atlanta last year.

Coming into the game at the start of the third period with the score tied, 8-8, Thomas stopped 10 of 13 shots in the period, three more in the overtime and Phoenix’s Doan and Nash in the shootout.

Thomas also helped weather the first All-Star game penalty since 2000 when Montreal’s Mike Komisarek was whistled for hooking in overtime.

“As much as I’ve been thinking about this moment . . . I knew how important it would be for all of us, not just for me, to succeed and put on a show and have fun,” Kovalev said. “You couldn’t ask [for] more.”

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ckuc@tribune.com