Canes’ Aho, Andersen in spotlight at All-Star skills competition. Here’s how they did

Carolina Hurricanes fans see Sebastian Aho’s skills on display every time they crowd into PNC Arena, and likely when they watch on TV when the team is on the road, too.

On Friday night, Aho showed his silky smooth hands off to the rest of the league’s fans during the NHL All-Star Skills competition.

Aho went fourth of eight competitors in the accuracy shooting contest, and creamed all four targets in 10.937 seconds, easily outdistancing the next closest competitor to win the event.

And he did it with a bobble. The fourth puck passed to him rolled just as it hit his stick, and he had to settle it, reach back a smidge and then fire at the final remaining target, in the top right corner of the cage.

“I was pretty nervous,” Aho told the broadcast after his win. “The passes were right on the tape, so that helped.”

There was some pause at first, because Aho’s third shot barely grazed the target in the top left corner. But on the broadcast, and again on replay, you could see the puck tick the edge of the target.

Jake Guentzel of the Penguins was second in 12.017 seconds.

Andersen’s best effort

Frederik Andersen was the first of the Canes All-Stars to go Friday, taking part in the save streak competition.

Each of the divisions’ two goalies were tasked with stopping breakaways from some of the best players in the game, alternating shooters. The duo with the longest streak of saves between them earned the win.

Andersen and the Penguins’ Tristan Jarry were the Metro Division tandem, and went second of the four pairs of keepers. Problem was, they followed the best performance of the night.

Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy and Toronto’s Jack Campbell strung together nine consecutive saves to set the early pace. Andersen and Jarry had trouble getting anything going and finished with just two in a row.

Thatcher Demko of Vancouver and John Gibson of Anaheim from the Pacific, and Cam Talbot of Minnesota and Juuse Saros of Nashville from the Central each recorded streaks of three in a row, all of which paled in comparison to Vasilevskiy and Campbell.

A goalie’s humor

After his turn to play was over, Andersen stuck around to watch the rest of the show, including the hardest shot competition. Speaking to NHL.com reporters on site, Andersen cracked a smile when he saw how hard the competitors were shooting in the hardest shot competition.

“We need less padding, smaller gear,” Andersen deadpanned.

“Fred and I have old chest protectors,” said Jack Campbell of the Toronto Maple Leafs. “We probably should go get those patched up.”

They watched as Victor Hedman launched two shots faster than 100 mph, hitting 103.2 with his second, final and eventual winning attempt.

“I’m just glad we don’t give up one-timers too often,” Andersen said.