Bourque

	Blake

In the latest list released Wednesday, Kariya totaled 438,827 votes and has a lead of more than 161,000 votes over Detroit's Brendan Shanahan among wingers. Shanahan dropped three spots to seventh in the overall voting, but remains ahead of San Jose's Owen Nolan for the second starting spot at wing.

The closest race is at defense, where the St. Louis Blues' Chris Pronger (303,086) increased his lead to 4,620 votes over Rob Blake of the Los Angeles Kings. Boston's Ray Bourque is less than 2,000 votes behind Blake, while Al MacInnis of St. Louis and Chris Chelios of Detroit are also factors in the race. Of the five defensemen, only Pronger has failed to win the Norris Trophy.

Goaltender Curtis Joseph of Toronto collected a second-best overall 328,067 ballots and enjoys a sizeable 146,000-vote advantage over another Red Wing, Chris Osgood.

Steve Yzerman, who scored his 600th career goal on Nov. 26, received 315,716 votes and extended his lead over Eric Lindros of the Philadelphia Flyers to over 103,000 votes among centers.

Kariya is third in the combined voting, trailing Pittsburgh Penguins right wing and NHL leading scorer Jaromir Jagr (610,850) and Red Wings defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom (553,144), who pace the World team.

If voting ended Wednesday, there would be no Americans on the North American starting squad. Chelios is the top U.S. vote-getter with 262,891, but is just fifth among defensemen. The Flyers' John LeClair, who is fourth among wings, is the closest American to a starting spot, standing over 32,000 behind Shanahan.

This is the third straight year in which the NHL is using the World-North American format at the All-Star Game.