Pepsi Center is normally the Colorado Mammoth's house.

However, during the 2004 NLL All Star Game, held Sunday afternoon, the Soda Can was someone else's 'Huis.

The Mark Steenhuis.

The Buffalo Bandits' rising star snagged All Star Game MVP honors with a six-goal, one-assist showing which included a natural hat trick, leading the Eastern Division to a 19-15 victory.

Steenhuis and Colin Doyle (Toronto Rock) dueled for the honor of high scorer throughout the fourth quarter, leading the East on a seven-goal run which left the West in the dust.

Doyle finished with five goals and an assist, tying hometown hero Gavin Prout (four goals, two assists) for the second-most points, with six.

As usual for an All Star Game, in any sport, offense dominated the early going. Calgary's Kaleb Toth put the West on the board just 32 seconds after the opening faceoff, and former Toronto teammate Dan Stroup (now a Vancouver Raven) made it 2-0 a minute later.

After Doyle swapped goals with Arizona's Pat Maddalena, current Mammoth forward Prout pushed the West lead to 4-1 on a feed from former Mammoth forward Ted Dowling, now of Calgary.

Jake Bergey, showing no ill effects from the foot injury which has been the reported reason for his absence from Philadelphia's lineup lately, pulled the maroon-clad Easterners with two, and kicked off a serious run in the process.

By the end of the quarter, Doyle had two more goals, while John Tavares (Buffalo) and Jeff Ratcliffe (Philadelphia) had also scored. East 6, West 4.

After Colorado's Jamie Hanford scored in the opening minute of the second quarter and Stroup tied the game a minute later, a funny thing happened for an All Star Game -- the teams actually started to play defense.

Yes, real defense, complete with genuine physical play.

"People were hitting everyone hard, with cross checks, slashing," Steenhuis said. "I thought the intensity was great the whole game. It just made it fun to play in."

Maybe it was the divisional pride. Maybe it was the cash prize being offered to the winning team (amount undisclosed). Whatever it was, the East and West suddenly came with an aggressive style.

"It wasn't a typical all star game [in any sport]," NLL commissioner Jim Jennings said. "I don't think I've ever seen an all star game where the players played as hard as they did."

The only goals the rest of the first half came from Steenhuis, a pair of ropemakers ten seconds apart at mid-quarter.

At halftime, the East led, 8-6.

The second half began with fresh goaltenders for each side, as the immortal Dallas Eliuk (Philadelphia) took over for Pat O'Toole (Rochester) at the East goal, and Mike Miron (Arizona) relieved Gord Nash (Colorado) for the West.

Steenhuis completed his natural hat trick thirteen seconds into the third quarter, and Tavares stretched the East's lead to 10-6 before the period was a minute old.

Two shots, two goals -- welcome to the All Star Game, Mr. Miron.

Sure enough, though, back came the West. Toth started the run at 1:27, followed by Rob Kirkby (Calgary) a few minutes later. Prout, Toth and Stroup also got in on the action, which put the West out in front, 11-10, by the middle of the third quarter.

Steenhuis tied the game at 8:24, only to watch Maddalena stake the West to a 12-11 lead two and a half minutes later.

Derek Malawsky, heretofore remarkably quiet, brought the match back to all square 44 seconds into the fourth quarter, and for more than five minutes, the game stayed a tense 12-12.

The West's collapse came fast and furious. Team East took the lead for good on a Tavares goal at 6:15, then stretched out some insurance goals from Blaine Manning and Doyle, his Rock teammate, in the eighth minute.

Tom Marechek (Philadelphia) struck in the ninth minute, followed by Doyle mere seconds later, putting "Popeye" back in the scoring lead (you'll recall his quick hat trick) with five goals.

Steenhuis ran the Eastern advantage to 18-12 with five and a half minutes to play, bringing Nash back into the game. (Hey, of course we're playing to win -- in what other sport would an All Star be relieved simply for playing like crap?)

With coach Jamie Batley pulling his netminder for a sixth attacker on every offensive possession, the West began to mount a comeback.

However, all the Gavin Prout magic in Colorado wasn't going to erase a six-goal deficit in less than five minutes, and although the Pride of Whitby scored twice late in the game, the West never got close.

Between the Prout goals, Colorado teammate Jay Jalbert (one of today's more ruthless hitters) scored for the West and Steenhuis (who else, really?) struck for the East.

Eliuk took the win, making 28 saves on 37 shots, almost as good as O'Toole's 23-of-29 first-half showing. Miron, to little surprise, shoulders the loss, managing just eighteen saves on 29 shots; Nash, playing before his home fans, turned aside sixteen of 24 shots.

ALL STAR GAME NOTES:

Eliuk remains the only player to appear in all four All Star Games the league has contested (Philadelphia 1991, Rochester 1999, Mohegan Sun 2002, and today), but if it wasn't for Steve Dietrich's pulled groin muscle keeping him out of this game, Eliuk wouldn't have been here at all. Gary Gait is the only other player to be selected for all four, but he skipped the Rochester and Mohegan Sun events.

Speaking of Gait, he was a non-factor in today's game. Arguably lacrosse's alltime best player, Gait (no goals, two assists) really has nothing to prove in an All Star Game, bringing his "A Game" for the games that count, and likely would prefer that the younger players steal the show.

Jennings hosted a crowd of potential expansion team owners at the game (some reports put it at around a dozen owners of NHL or NBA teams), but apparently had little to say after the game about what his guests thought of indoor lacrosse. Jennings' expansion hopefuls include Atlanta, Dallas, Miami and Nashville.

The finals of three All Star Weekend skills contests were held during halftime. Toth took the award for hardest shot, clocking in at 99 miles per hour (although he claimed later in a TV interview that his shot has gone as high as 106 MPH), while Tavares won the Rapid Fire competition and Marechek claimed the Trick Shot title (although none of the finalists' shots actually went in the net).

Earlier today, the Colorado Buffaloes and the Colorado State Rams club lacrosse teams took to the turf in what was billed as the first-ever collegiate indoor lacrosse game. No contest -- the defending USLIA champion Rams pounded their bitter rivals, 15-4.

BOX SUMMARY
                                      1  2  3  4     TOT
Eastern Division                      6  2  3  8  --  19
Western Division                      4  2  6  3  --  15

EASTERN DIVISION              WESTERN DIVISION
               G - A   PTS                   G - A   PTS
Steenhuis      6 - 1     7    Prout          4 - 2     6
Doyle          5 - 1     6    Stroup         3 - 2     5
Cantabene      0 - 5     5    Toth           3 - 2     5
J Veltman      0 - 5     5    Maddalena      2 - 1     3
Tavares        3 - 1     4    C Powell       0 - 3     3
Marechek       1 - 3     4    Jalbert        1 - 1     2
Bergey         1 - 2     3    Dowling        0 - 2     2
Coyle          0 - 3     3    Gait           0 - 2     2
D Malawsky     1 - 1     2    Kelusky        0 - 2     2
Manning        1 - 1     2    Law            0 - 2     2
Ratcliffe      1 - 0     1    Ogilvie        0 - 2     2
Turner         0 - 2     2    Hanford        1 - 0     1
Accursi        0 - 1     1    Kirkby         1 - 0     1
G Clark        0 - 1     1    Moss           0 - 1     1
Couling        0 - 1     1    Nash           0 - 1     1
Hasen          0 - 1     1    J Sanderson    0 - 1     1

Shots on goal           53    Shots on goal           66
Saves made by (GA)      51    Saves made by (GA)      34
   Eliuk (9)         28          Miron (11)        18
   O'Toole (6)       23          Nash (8)          16
Penalties                4    Penalties                3
Penalty Minutes          8    Penalty Minutes          6
Power Play Chances       2    Power Play Chances       3
Power Play Goals         2    Power Play Goals         1
   Doyle              1          Toth               1
   Tavares            1
Shorthanded Goals        0    Shorthanded Goals        0
Loose Balls             69    Loose Balls             76
   Cantabene         10          Jalbert           10
   Turner            10          Prout             10
   Coyle              9          Moss               9
Faceoffs Won            18    Faceoffs Won            20
   Cantabene    (17-17)          Hanford      (11-10)
   Accursi      ( 1- 3)          Kirkby       ( 8- 7)
                                 Moss         ( 1- 1)

 *** STATS OFFICIAL BY VERIFY WITH COLORADO MAMMOTH ***