Doyle: OHL All-Star Skills on display in Kingston

KINGSTON, ON -- The OHL's top stars put on a skillful display - but in front of a disappointing crowd in Kingston.

The Western Conference squad captured a 18-15 victory over Team East in the combined Skills Competition/3-on-3 game. But much of the discussion on press row was about the lack of people in attendance. All-Star Games do not normally sell out, even in buildings that normally pack the house, but the half-full building was a topic of discussion.

In the Skills events, Owen Sound Attack defenceman Jesse Blacker captured won with a time of 15.05 seconds. Surprisingly, Windsor's Taylor Hall did not participate in this event. He cracked came in around 14.3 seconds during the recent Prospects Game in Windsor, edged out by Barrie's Alexander Burmistrov.

In the accuracy shooting, Mississauga St. Michael's Majors sophomore Devante Smith-Pelly hit three targets in eight attempts to win. Nobody hit all four targets - a change from last season when Bryan Cameron, then of Belleville, went four-for-four.

John Moore of the Kitchener Rangers captured the hardest shot title with a blast of 98mph. He actually had a total of four shots, two more than normal, because his two of his shots registered 13 and 15mph respectively.

In the four-man puck relay race, the Eastern Conference crew of Cody Lindsay (OTT), Andrew Agozzino (NIA), Eric O'Dell (SBY) and Casey Cizikas (MIS) won the race against Jeremy Morin (KIT), Nazem Kadri (LDN), Jordan Skellett (SAG) and A.J. Jenks (PLY). That was follwed by a one-on-one race that saw Kingston's Ethan Werek edge out Hall.

The final event involved all of the players in the penalty shot competition. Mississauga's Chris Carrozzi stopped all nine shots he faced to steal the show. But Sault Ste. Marie's Robin Lehner was not far behind, stopping 8 of 9 shots.

Then it was on to the 3-on-3 event, captured by the Western Conference 11-7, and the Western Conference captured bragging rights for the night with an 18-15 victory.

tdoyle@loosepucks.com
Twitter: Loosepucks