East bests West in YoungStars

DALLAS – New Jersey forward Zach Parise had two goals and four assists to lead the Eastern Conference to a 9-8 victory over the Western Conference in Tuesday’s YoungStars game.

Parise, a first-round pick by the Devils in 2003, was selected the MVP. Boston’s Phil Kessel scored his third goal 4 minutes into the third period, assisted by Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal and Parise, for a 9-4 East lead.

The West scored the last four goals in the game, and had a chance to tie in the final 30 seconds when Jussi Jokinen of the hometown Dallas Stars – the lowest draft pick in the game, picked 192nd overall in the sixth round in 2001 – missed from the front of the net.

“I had a lack of focus after we got the big lead,” said Atlanta’s Kari Lehtonen, the East goalie. “They were scoring a lot, but I was happy to stop Jussi there at the end.”

Anze Kopitar, the Los Angeles Kings’ first-round pick in 2005, and Ryan Getzlaf, Anaheim’s first-round selection in 2003, both also had two goals for the West.