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| Date | January 18, 1997 | |||||||||||||||
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| Arena | San Jose Arena | |||||||||||||||
| City | San Jose | |||||||||||||||
| MVP | Mark Recchi (Montreal) | |||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 17,422 | |||||||||||||||
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The1997 National Hockey League All-Star Game took place on January 18, 1997, atSan Jose Arena inSan Jose, home of theSan Jose Sharks. The final score wasEastern Conference 11,Western Conference 7. This game was originally scheduled for the 1994–95 season, but was cancelled due to the1994–95 NHL lockout.
TheEastern Conference won the skills competition for the first time since1992.St. Louis Blues'Al MacInnis won theHardest Shot event for the third time in his career by slapping the puck at 98.9 mph.Boston Bruins' defencemanRay Bourque won theShooting Accuracy event for the fourth time, hitting four targets in seven shots.Florida Panthers' goaltenderJohn Vanbiesbrouck stopped all 10 shots byMats Sundin andDerian Hatcher inRapid-Fire Relay to outduelColorado Avalanche netminderPatrick Roy who made nine saves. In thePower-Play Relay, Vanbiesbrouck allowed only two of six shots to elude him that were taken byMighty Ducks of Anaheims'Teemu Selanne andPaul Kariya to claim theGoaltenders Competition.
Montreal Canadiens' right-wingerMark Recchi had a hat-trick to lead theEastern Conference to an 11–7 victory and to be named All-Star M.V.P. Mark Recchi would become the fourth Montreal Canadien to receive the award. A record 10 goals was scored in the second period, including two from hometown favoriteSan Jose Sharks' right-wingerOwen Nolan in a record eight seconds. Nolan would complete his hat-trick in the third period as he closed in on a breakaway towardsBuffalo Sabres' goaltenderDominik Hasek. Nolan pointed to the top left corner and then fired a shot right off the bar top corner. Mike Emrick called it saying, "here come the chapeaus!". The crowd erupted, throwing hats everywhere.
