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The 46th Annual NHL All-Star Game took place at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts on January 20, 1996. The 46th game was originally scheduled to take place in 1995, but the lockout of the 1994–95 NHL season led to its postponement.
Contents
Super Skills Competition
The Western Conference would win their third-straight Skills Competition on a second round tie-breaking penalty shot goal. In the individual events Sergei Fedorov tied the record for Fastest Skater (13.510s '93 Gartner), only a few races later to have Mike Gartner break his previous record by finishing the event at 13.386 seconds, which still stands today as the record. Mark Messier would win the Accuracy Shooting event by becoming the second player to hit four targets on four shots.
Individual Event winners
The game
Boston Bruins' defensemen Ray Bourque scored with just 37.3 seconds remaining in regulation to lift the Eastern Conference to a 5–4 victory in front of the home crowd in Boston. For his heroics, the 17-year veteran was named All-Star M.V.P.
The East built a 2–0 lead after the first period as New Jersey Devils' goaltender Martin Brodeur was able to stop all 12 shots. Philadelphia Flyers' Eric Lindros and New York Rangers' Pat Verbeek opened the scoring in the first period. In the second period, Pittsburgh Penguins' Jaromir Jagr would score to increase the East lead to 3–0. However, the Western Conference responded by scoring three of the next four goals in the second period to pull within one, going into the third. Winnipeg Jets' Teemu Selanne would tie the game at 4–4 with 3:29 remaining, before Bourque scored the winning goal.
Additional information
This was also the first game where the FoxTrax was used in the All-Star Game. Jim Kelley revealed on Prime Time Sports that Dominik Hasek was chosen as the game MVP but he overruled the vote because Bourque scored the game winner and the game was in Boston, where Bourque played most of his career.