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Hossa's OT Goal Lifts Blackhawks

 width=Marian Hossa scored 1:08 into overtime, Artemi Panarin had a goal and two assists and the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 on Wednesday night for their third consecutive victory.

Patrick Kane had two assists and extended his point streak to 14 games but had his goal streak ended at seven. He leads the NHL with 13 goals and 30 points.

Hossa turned a long pass from Brent Seabrook into a breakaway and beat Anders Nilsson with a slap shot from in close.

Panarin, a 24-year-old rookie, has points in six straight games, amassing five goals and five assists in that time while on a line with Kane and Artem Anisimov.

Duncan Keith and Andrew Shaw also scored for the Blackhawks. Corey Crawford made 34 saves.

Benoit Pouliot, Jordan Eberle and Leon Draisaitl scored, Teddy Purcell had two assists and Edmonton lost its third straight.

Draisaitl tied it with 2:46 remaining off a feed from Taylor Hall.

 width=>>NHL Overhauls All Star Game Format

The NHL officially announced Wednesday that it is making significant changes to the format of the league's annual All-Star Game starting with this year's game on Jan. 31 in Nashville. The biggest difference is that the All-Star Game won't be a game at all. Instead it will be a three-game 3-on-3 tournament pitting the best players from each division against each other, as previously reported.

Perhaps spurred by the louder cries of boredom following last year's particularly putrid 17-12 game, or maybe the worse television ratings, the league is taking a drastic step to boost interest.

Last year's game had 1.2 million viewers tune into NBC Sports Network for the game broadcast in the U.S. That was down 14 percent from the 2012 All-Star Game. They were down in Canada, too. Don't forget that the 2013 All-Star Game was wiped out by the lockout and there was no game in 2014 due to the Olympics. The lack of consistency might have played some role, too.

Now the league is trying to capitalize on a widely popular change they made in real games --shifting to a 3-on-3 overtime period. The question becomes, however, how does a game that was already wide open benefit from creating more open ice when the players aren't going to go full speed?

That's what the new tournament format may correct. They're giving players a reason to compete. Some pride might be on the line, but more than that, they're actually going to pay out the winners this year.

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