SUNRISE, Fla., Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Al MacInnis reclaimed his title as the NHL's hardest shooter and Marian Gaborik staked his claim as the league's fastest skater Saturday night as the Western Conference captured the All-Star SuperSkills Competition.
MacInnis, the St. Louis Blues defenseman who did not attend last year's All-Star Game, won the hardest shot competition for the seventh time with a blast of 98.9 miles per hour.
While it was off his personal best of 100.1 mph, it was good enough to defeat Ottawa Senators defenseman Zdeno Chara, who registered a 97.8 mph.
"I was seeing the scores and I was surprised a little bit," MacInnis said. "I thought the ice was heavy. It was a little wet and I don't think the puck was jumping off as good as it can. It looked like the guys were shooting harder than the scores were indicating.
"There's a lot of luck involved and I got lucky there."
Gaborik, a first-time All-Star from the Minnesota Wild, was the first of six players to participate in the fastest skater event, but his time of 13.713 seconds easily held up.
"I was surprised, very surprised," he said. "The ice wasn't that great. First one, it's a little bit of an advantage. Sergei Fedorov kind of gave me some hints. I just tried to do something different and it worked out."
Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning won the individual puck control relay event and was second in the fastest skater competition at 14.203 mph.
Jeremy Roenick of the Philadelphia Flyers led a dominant effort by the Eastern Conference in the shooting accuracy event, needing just six shots to hit all four targets. East teammates Jeff O'Neill of the Carolina Hurricanes and Glen Murray of the Boston Bruins were four for seven.
"If you hit the first one, you settle down a little bit," Roenick said. "I think that's the most nerve-racking event that there is. You don't want to embarrass yourself. But Joe (Thornton) hit those first three and I thought for sure that he had it."
Patrick Roy anchored the West victory by capturing the overall goaltending event. He stopped all three tries in the pass-and-score competition, then allowed just one goal against the likes of St. Louis, Roenick, Alexei Kovalev, Vincent Lecavalier, Roman Hamrlik and Scott Stevens in the breakaway relay.
The West has won the skills title three times in four tries under this All-Star format, although the East took the last crown in 1997.
All-Star Weekend officially began with the YoungStars Game. Unlike last year's inaugural event, it did not produce a runaway MVP as the East coasted to an 8-3 rout.
Washington Capitals rookie Brian Sutherby collected two goals and an assist to win MVP honors. The 26th overall pick in the 2000 draft has just two goals and four assists in 43 games for the Capitals, but he capped a 91-second, three-goal outburst in the first period and added an empty-netter in the final minute of the third.
Pavel Brendl of the Flyers also scored twice and Mattias Weinhandl of the New York Islanders and Stephen Weiss of the Florida Panthers each had a goal and an assist for the East.
Rick Nash of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the top overall pick in last year's draft, matched Sutherby with two goals and an assist for the West.
Ilya Kovalchuk of the Atlanta Thrashers scored six goals last year to win the inaugural YoungStars MVP award.
