Canadiens Skills Competition: Recap

MONTREAL – Hockey fans packed the house on Sunday for the Canadiens Skills Competition presented by RONA.

The annual event had a different look this year, with PWHL Montreal players also on-hand to showcase their abilities.

The morning started with a classic Skills event – the Fastest Skater. Alex Newhook whipped around the ice with the day’s quickest lap time – 13,372 seconds – appearing to gain a speed boost by shedding his bucket mid-session.

Sarah Bujold had the fastest time among the women at 14,247 seconds.

The Relay Race was won by Team White – composed of Juraj Slafkovsky, Marie-Philip Poulin, Mariah Keopple, and Joel Armia – who beat out Team Red’s Maureen Murphy, Erin Ambrose, Colin White, and Newhook in the teamwork-focused fixture.

Jordan Harris then bested Cole Caufield in a one-on-one version of the trial.

The day’s third event was Accuracy Shooting, which gave players 32 seconds to hit four targets with as few shots possible. Caufield made quick work of the marks, shattering them in 12,386 seconds.

For the women, it was Ambrose’s 15,326 seconds that were tops.

Back to another time-honored event, the Hardest Shot competition was won with a 107.2 MPH blast from Arber Xhekaj. The Habs D-man was the only player to hit triple digits on both his tries.

PWHL Montreal captain Marie-Phillip Poulin led the women with an 84.6 MPH attempt.

The day wrapped up with Michigans and an elimination-style Continuous Shootout.

Bujold won the former with an average score of 32.75 on 10(!) from the judges. Like the judges and their scoring, the players likewise got creative in the shootout, pulling off a number of inventive moves until only Jacob Burrows – son of coach Alex Burrows – was left standing.

One more surprise was in store for fans before heading home – Maggie the Goalie of Internet fame showed off her four-legged skills between the pipes. Not even Slafkovsky could outmaneuver the pup, who caught a whole lot of snout on his stick while attempting a deke.

In total, the event raised $245,111 to be distributed among the Montreal Canadiens Children’s Foundation, the NHLPA Goals & Dreams fund, and the ALS Super Fund.