Some of Ontario's top junior hockey players will be in Collingwood again for a skills competition as part of an all-star celebration weekend.
The Ontario Junior Hockey League's (OJHL) all-star celebration takes place in January with the skills competition at the Eddie Bush Memorial Arena on Friday, Jan. 12 at 7 p.m.
According to a news release from the OJHL, the skills competition will include contests for hardest shot, accuracy shooting, fastest skater, a speed skate relay, and a "finale 18-player showdown."
Points are awarded for each event to decide which team takes the overall victory.
Awards will also be presented for top individual performances in hardest shot, most accurate shot, fastest skater and top goalie.
The event is sponsored by Dairy Farmers of Ontario.
The Skills Competition will be managed by Top Shot Hockey. The Ontario company operates skills challenges for Junior A, professional and minor hockey leagues. The company, which runs the ECHL all-star skills event, designed and produced the electronic targets used in the accuracy challenge by the NHL at its events in Tampa and San Jose.
Team Mark Giordano won the inaugural event in 2023, which also took place in Collingwood.
Individual skills event trophy winners in 2023 were:
- Hardest shot - Luca Fasciano (Toronto Patriots), 92 km/h
- Accuracy shooting – Matt Cato (Trenton Golden Hawks), four targets on seven shots in 13.7 seconds
- Fastest skater -Tyler Fukakusa (Toronto Jr. Canadiens), 12.94-second lap
- Top goaltender - Noah Pak (Collingwood Blues), stopped eight of nine shots
The participants for each skills competition event will be selected by the coaches of each team and will be announced in early January just prior to the all-star celebration
The Jan. 13 schedule will kick off with the OJHL alumni game at 10:30 a.m, followed by the Hudl-Instat OJHL prospects game at 1 p.m, which will feature the league’s top players born in 2006 and 2007.
The main attraction, the OJHL all-star game, will start at 5 p.m. and feature the top players from around the 24-team league as selected by the league’s competition committee.
Tickets for the OJHL all-star celebration will go on sale next week.
All net proceeds from the weekend events will go to the OJHL Foundation, which focuses on delivering the First Assist Program to aid players with mental health and life skills training.
More information on the event, including ticket sales, rosters and coaches for the three games and skills competition, will be released in the coming weeks.
