NHL | U.S. audience skips the All-Star Game

TV watchers didn't exactly warm up to the NHL's midweek All-Star Game, which experienced a 76 percent drop in household viewership from the previous All-Star Game, in 2004.

Wednesday night's game in Dallas drew a 0.7 Nielsen rating on Versus, the cable channel formerly known as OLN.

The game was viewed in an estimated 474,298 households and by 672,948 viewers, down from the 1,985,000 households that saw the 2004 All-Star Game on a Sunday afternoon on ABC.

The NHL ratings drop-off was even greater when compared to the 2000 game in Toronto, which was watched in 2,681,000 households on a Sunday afternoon - or more than five times as many homes as were tuned in Wednesday.

While Wednesday's game was the most-watched cable show that night in Buffalo and Pittsburgh, it did not place among the top 20 cable shows in NHL markets such as New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Washington and Miami.

The 7.1 rating in Buffalo was by far the largest in any U.S. market. The national rating is the percentage of U.S. television households tuned to a program, and each point represents about 1.1 million homes.

In Canada, the estimated audience on CBC was 1,238,000, up about 6 percent from 2004.

Hall of Fame goalie dies. Gump Worsley, the Hall of Fame goalie who didn't wear a mask until the final season of his 21-year NHL career, has died. He was 77.

Worsley, who died Friday at his home in Beloeil, Quebec, had a heart attack last Monday, the Montreal Gazette said Saturday night.

Born Lorne John Worsley in Montreal in 1929, he was tagged with the "Gump" moniker as a child because his hair stuck up like Andy Gump, the comic strip character.

The 5-foot-7 Worsley began his NHL career in 1952-53, winning the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year with the New York Rangers. He helped his hometown Montreal Canadiens win four Stanley Cup titles in a five-year span and finished his career with the Minnesota North Stars in 1973-74 - playing only his final six games with a mask.

"He was a terrific goaltender," former North Stars teammate Lou Nanne said. "If I could pick any goalie to win a big game, it would be Gump."

Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1980, Worsley was 335-352-150 with a 2.88 goals-against average and 43 shutouts in 861 regular-season games. In the playoffs, he was 40-26 with a 2.78 GAA and five shutouts.

"He was one of the first real characters in the NHL," Nanne said. "He had a lot of personality and really showed the human side of the game. He didn't look like an athlete and smoked like a chimney between periods, but he was terrific when he put the pads on."

Ducks 4, Stars 1

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Andy McDonald scored twice and Teemu Selanne had a goal and an assist to lead Anaheim over Dallas.

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 30 saves after missing 11 games with a groin strain. The 2003 playoff MVP improved to 12-2-0 over his last 14 starts.

Red Wings 3, Avalanche 1

DETROIT - Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom each had a goal and an assist to lift Detroit over Colorado.

Blackhawks 4, Flames 3

CHICAGO - Denis Arkhipov ended Chicago's losing streak at 10, scoring a power-play goal at 2 minutes, 53 seconds of overtime to lift the Blackhawks over Calgary.