ATLANTA -- In a league where the Eastern and Western conferences are divided not only by time zones but also by a schedule with limited crossover play, those in the West at times foster a minor inferiority complex.

"Everything's in the East," San Jose center Joe Thornton said.

What happened last night probably won't help soothe those feelings.

The East gave up a four-goal lead and fell behind before a last-minute comeback produced an 8-7 win against the West in the 56th NHL All-Star Game in front of 18,644 at Philips Arena.

"It got competitive down the stretch," said Carolina's Eric Staal, who had a goal and two assists for the East.

Staal, older brother of Penguins forward Jordan Staal and New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal, won an SUV as the game's MVP. He hadn't decided whether to keep or give away the vehicle.

"I was saying on the ice if I give it to my parents, I would for sure be the favorite of the family for at least a little while," he said.

Staal started a tic-tac-toe play that produced the winning goal with 20.9 seconds left in third period to give the East the win. The play started with Staal behind the West net. He fed the puck out to Buffalo's Brian Campbell, who fed a slick pass to Boston's Marc Savard. From the slot, Savard guided the puck past St. Louis goaltender Manny Legace's blocker.

"You see the skill level is up there, the speed is up there, there are a lot of great players," said Penguins defenseman Sergei Gonchar, who played in his fourth All-Star Game.

Penguins second-year forward Evgeni Malkin picked up two assists and helped generate a few other scoring chances for the East.

How Malkin felt about the experience will remain a mystery for now. Despite repeated prodding from fellow Russian Gonchar and Penguins executives, Malkin declined to attempt a short interview in English.

Malkin's assists came in the first period, when the East zoomed to a 5-1 lead.

Columbus' Rick Nash, who finished with a hat trick playing in his third All-Star Game, stole the puck after the opening faceoff and gave the West a 1-0 lead 12 seconds into the game.

That sparked the competitive juices of the East players, who got goals from Staal, Montreal's Andrei Markov, Washington's Alex Ovechkin, Buffalo's Brian Campbell and Ovechkin again before the end of the first period.

Malkin sent the puck from the left circle to the far boards for Campbell, who fed Staal for the East's first goal. His pass from the right corner later earned him an assist on Campbell's goal.

At the start of the third, East coach John Paddock, of Ottawa, kept his promise to play the five Russian players together -- Malkin, Gonchar, Ovechkin, Markov and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk. All but Ovechkin had played together at the World Championships.

"It didn't work well," Gonchar said, shaking his head.

The fivesome gave up a goal by Nash just 41 seconds into the period.

The West inched closer late in the second on a goal from Anaheim's Scott Niedermayer, then pulled even with goals from Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf and Nash in the first two minutes of the third period.

The East players picked things up.

"You don't even think about it," Gonchar said of the drive to hold off the West. "It's just natural. It happens."

After Atlanta's Marian Hossa put the East back on top, 6-5, Calgary's Dion Phaneuf and Vancouver's Henrik Sedin scored to give the West its first lead, 7-6. Less than two minutes later, at 12:35, Staal tied it, 7-7.

"It's getting more competitive in the past couple years," East defenseman Zdeno Chara, of Boston, said. "There's no hitting, but there's a lot of skating and it's up and down hockey."

The players from the West were left to brood over the East's win -- and perceived higher status.

The NHL's original six teams extended no farther west than Detroit, and Anaheim defenseman Chris Pronger said teams in time zones beyond that are somewhat forgotten.

"They really still don't give us out in the West the time of day," he said. "It's a little late for you guys in the East to watch our games. You might catch the first 10 minutes and then go to sleep.

Pronger had one idea: Diversify the sites of the NHL offices, which are in Toronto, Montreal and New York.

"That's not very nice," he said. "I think we should set up an office right in Orange County."