Hedman, Kyrou, Aho win big in Vegas NHL skills competition

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman won the Hardest Shot competition and St. Louis' Jordan Kyrou was the Fastest Skater during an NHL All-Star skills competition with a distinct Vegas flavor Friday night.

Carolina’s Sebastian Aho won the Accuracy Shooting contest at T-Mobile Arena on a night when the biggest impressions were left by the Sin City settings and showmanship.

Columbus' Zach Werenski won the Fountain Face-Off, in which the All-Stars stood on a floating platform in the middle of the Bellagio casino's famous fountains up the Strip and shot light-up pucks at a series of targets all around them.

Several more All-Stars then played a game called 21 in ‘22, in which they shot at a 35-foot outdoor wall of oversized playing cards in a version of blackjack. Dallas’ Joe Pavelski won that competition by getting closest to 21.

The actual skills competitions probably weren't as entertaining as the lighthearted Breakaway Challenge, which featured multiple entertaining stunt goals by costumed pros. Minnesota's Kirill Kaprizov started it off by doing a sharp imitation of Alex Ovechkin while wearing his hero's jersey.

Perhaps most impressively, gifted Anaheim center Trevor Zegras dressed up as a character from his favorite movie, “Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story,” and scored an astonishing, spinning goal while wearing a blindfold and getting hit by dodgeballs thrown by NHL mascots and Ducks teammate Troy Terry, who was just as stunned as the crowd when Zegras scored.

“I've seen what he can do with a puck, and I figured he was doing something along those lines,” Terry said. “All I knew was that I had a dodgeball and I was supposed to not hit him, which was really hard not to do.”

Zegras didn't make the Pacific Division's