AHL All Stars Beat Färjestad in Skills Competition

12 Feb 2014 | By Gerard Cantlon

The first meeting of the AHL and a European team was a big hit in St. John’s, Newfoundland last night in the AHL Skills competition.

Jason Jaffray, the AHL All Star captain from the hometown St. John’s Ice Caps completed the AHL All Stars rally to win the skills competition 18-17 on a gorgeous forehand breakaway on a sprawled out Färjestad BK goalie Frederik Pettersson-Wentzel in the last round of the sudden death shootout scoring the only goal top shelf to end the competition and sent the packed house home happy.

The two teams meet in the AHL All Star Game tonight at the Mile One Centre in St. John’s at 8:00pm AST (Atlantic Standard Time).

The Skills Competition produced several highlights for both sides.

Färjestad BK defenseman Magnus Nygren, a Montreal Canadiens prospect who started the year with Hamilton (AHL) set an AHL All Star competition record for the fastest shot clocked at 104.6 mph (168.34 kmph). Jaffray and Nygren along with Bridgeport Sound Tiger Ryan Strome were superb in the Accuracy Shooting portion as all three were sharp knocking out four targets in just six attempts.

In the Fastest Skater segment, Binghamton Senator Mike Hoffman finished top of the list at 13.99 seconds and in the Puck Control Relay Färjestad BK 16 year old Oliver Kylington outraced current AHL scoring leader Travis Morin (Texas Stars).

The top goalie went to AHL All Star Dustin Tokarski (Hamilton Bulldogs) who stopped 16 of 24 shots he faced in various segments.

The league will conduct its Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies today with four more added to the list including great coaches Bill Dineen and Al MacNeil. The players include the late Bob Perreault and St. John’s native and AHL all time leading scorer among defenseman John Slaney.