Richmond teen Liu is U.S. champ again
ST. LOUIS — Shooting pucks from the stands and some of the best women’s hockey players in the world going back and forth in a 3on3 game stole the show at the NHL AllStar Skills Competition on Friday night.
The new events spiced up the skills competition by showcasing the kind of skill that has become the norm in the sport.
From a platform behind one of the nets, eight NHL AllStars and women’s players Hilary Knight and MariePhilip Poulin took aim at targets on the ice in a mix of hockey and Top Golf. A subject of booing from Blues fans all night, Chicago wing
Patrick Kane beat Toronto’s Mitch Marner and St. Louis’ Ryan O’Reilly to win the “shooting stars” event.
Canada beat the U.S. 21 in the first women’s 3on3 game at NHL AllStar Weekend. Rebecca Johnston and Melodie Daoust scored and Ann Renee Desbiens made 18 saves for the winners.
The sellout crowd of 18,069 was engaged for all 20 minutes of the exhibition, which was full of breakaways and terrific goaltending. Commissioner Gary Bettman said earlier in the day the NHL would see how it goes about having a women’s element at every AllStar Weekend, but the 3on3 game seemed to be enough of a hit to warrant bringing it back next year.
“Thanks to the NHL for doing this for women’s hockey,”
Knight said.
In the first event of the night, New York Islanders forward Mathew Barzal ended Connor McDavid’s threeyear reign as winner of the fastest skater competition. At 13.175 seconds, Barzal finished fourhundredths of a second ahead of McDavid.
St. Louis’ Jordan Binnington stopped 10 shots in a row — including one by a faux Justin Bieber — to win the shootout challenge. The Sharks’ Tomas Hertl wore a Bieber mask for his shot, a tip of the cap to Binnington — who on Jan. 1 challenged Bieber to a breakaway competition.
Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin won the accuracy shooting competition with a time of 9.505 seconds.
Montreal defenseman Shea Weber blew away the hardest shot field with a 106.5 mph blast.