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The NHL All-Star Game was settled in the newest of ways in hockey's oldest city. Alex Ovechkin sealed the Eastern Conference's 12-11 victory Sunday night with a goal in the third round of the shootout. It capped off the busiest of nights for the NHL's reigning MVP, who also had a goal and two assists. Ovechkin, the reigning NHL MVP and the champion of the breakaway challenge in Saturday's skill competition, showed exactly why he has become such a fan favorite in his 3 1/2 seasons. He answered Keith Tkachuk's goal on the western conference's first shot with one of his own 5:10 later at 6:26, finishing off a sweet give-and-go with Boston's Marc Savard -- who scored the winning goal in the final minute of last year's All-Star Game.

By JAN HUBBARD BOSTON — An hour before tip-off, Rick Carlisle met with the media and was asked an unusually worded question by a Boston area reporter, who noted that the Celtics have been getting off to fast starts.Instead of asking how the Dallas Mavericks might try to prevent that, however, the man asked how good they were at mounting comebacks. It was almost as if the Celtics were assured of building a big lead.The Mavericks’ coach was a little puzzled by the question and finally came up with: 'I don’t really look at it that way.'By the end of the first quarter, he had no choice. The Mavericks were competitive with the defending NBA champions for exactly 7 minutes and 16 seconds. At that point, the Celtics went on a 12-0 run to build a double-digit lead. That provided the answer that Carlisle could not.How good are the Mavericks at comebacks?Not very.The excitement of playing on national television faded into public humiliation as the Celtics battered the Maverick

Mavericks F Josh Howard had 18 points, five rebounds and four assists in Sunday's game in Boston. He is averaging 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.0 assists in his four games since returning from Thursday.

They wore hand-me-down jerseys, the little rips and tears widening with every loss. The holes at quarterback and kicker were more obvious...

Boston coach Doc Rivers was asked after the Celtics’ 124-100 victory over Dallas on Sunday if kevin garnett, above, had extra motivation playing against Dirk Nowitzki because they are considered two of the best power forwards in the league.'I don’t know that as a fact,' Rivers said, 'but I would say it would be human nature.'With Garnett as the primary defender, Nowitzki was only 4-of-17 from the field and had 18 points. It was one of Nowitzki’s poorer shooting performances of the season.'We watched a lot of tape the last couple of days,' said Garnett, who had 23 points, 'and I noticed he gets a lot of space. If you give him any kind of space, he’s going to let the 3 go. That’s probably one of the most deadliest, unorthodox step-backs in the game today, and all I did was try and pressure him. Guys like Dirk, you can’t stop them. You can only slow them down.'Garnett did exactly that on Sunday. — Jan Hubbard

By JAN HUBBARD BOSTON — The game was physical. The Dallas Mavericks were frustrated. And that led to three technical fouls against the Mavericks on Sunday.Assistant coach Dwane Casey was hit with one in the second quarter, and James Singleton got one in the third.There was some confusion on the last one with 2:10 left in the fourth quarter of the Mavericks’ 124-100 loss at Boston.One of the Mavericks said the referees wanted to call a technical on owner Mark Cuban, but league rules allow technicals to be called only on players, coaches or other officials sitting on the first row.Most of the players on the bench were yelling, and it was announced the technical was on the bench. But it has to be assigned to an individual, so it was given to assistant Mario Elie. But Mavericks players said they thought it was against Dirk Nowitzki, and it’s likely to be changed when reviewed by the league.'I thought we got fouled a little bit, but usually in this league the team that&rs

The Sports Xchange reports Senators D Anton Volchenkov has missed eight games with an apparent shoulder injury, but is practicing with the team and expected to play Tuesday against New Jersey.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Jose Calderon had 17 points and 11 assists and the Toronto Raptors beat the New Jersey Nets 107-106 on Wednesday night for their first three-game winning streak since the start of the season.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Jose Calderon had 17 points and 11 assists and the Toronto Raptors beat the New Jersey Nets 107-106 on Wednesday night for their first three-game winning streak since the start of the season.

After scoring 74 points in the first half, the Boston Celtics sit all of their starters for the entire fourth quarter against the Dallas Mavericks, securing their eigth straight victory, 124-100.