ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The NHL held its skills competition on the eve of the All-Star game in St. Louis.
Blues netminder Jordan Binnington made the locals happy by capturing the goaltending shootout competition. He stopped his last 10 shots faced, beating the streak of nine set by Tampa Bay’s Alexi Vasilievskiy.
Islanders forward Mat Barzal captured the fastest skater competition, beating three-time defending champ and Oilers forward Connor McDavid with a time of 13.175 seconds. Barzal was just three-thousandths off the record held by Detroit’s Dylan Larkin. Sabres captain Jack Eichel finished fourth in the event with a time of 13.64.
When Eichel skated he put himself in second place behind the New York Rangers Chris Krieder. Barzal followed Eichel and no one was able to catch the Islanders forward. Eichel's time this year was better than the first two times he competed in the event.
Hurricanes defenseman Jacob Slavin was the most accurate shooter, needing just 9.505 seconds to hit the four targets.
And Canada was a 2-1 winner over the United States in the 3-on-3 women’s game. Ann-Renee Desbiens was fantastic in stopping 18 of 19 shots for Canada.
Montreal's Shea Weber won the hardest shot competition for the fourth time and South Buffalo's Patrick Kane won the Gatorade Shooting Stars to wrap up the evening.
Kane beat Toronto's Mitch Marner and the Blues Ryan O'Reilly in a one shot tie breaker after all three finished with 22 points after their first seven shots.
Watch the All Star game Saturday night at 8 o'clock on WGRZ-TV.
