SuperSkills A Win For The East

In his first career NHL Skills Competition, Rick DiPietro was nearly flawless as the East All-Stars defeated the West All-Stars 9-6, Saturday night at Phillips Arena. Wearing a microphone for the VERSUS telecast, DiPietro played on-ice broadcaster throughout the competition.

During the final event, Islanders fans got a scare when DiPietro made a marvelous save on Marian Gaborik with his left pad and appeared to be injured. DiPietro told reporters after the competition that he was a little sore, but would still be okay to play in tomorrow's All-Star Game.

DiPietro took part in three events, including the re-vamped relay race, which involved a stickhandling, saucer pass, one-timer and goalie shot. During the goalie shot, DiPietro scored two of four goals from his own goal line in the far net for his heat. DiPietro was the only goalie to score more than one goal.

Later in the competition, DiPietro was in goal for the Elimination Shootout competition. He used a quick glove to stop Mike Ribeiro, who thought he had DiPietro fooled. Then DiPietro stopped Gaborik for a perfect two-for-two in the event.

Prior to the final round of the Breakaway Challenge event, which judged skaters' breakaway creativity, DiPietro gave some humorous advice to teammate Ilya Kovalchuk: "You should light yourself on fire, and then do a backflip and go top shelf." Boy, that made me crack up.

DiPietro's request wasn't fulfilled, but the Islanders netminder made sure not to allow any goals by him in the event. Facing Gaborik once again, DiPietro wasn't fooled by the shifty forward from Minnesota, stopping him twice. On the second attempt, DiPietro out-waited Gaborik's initial deke and then stopped his wrap-around attempt with a full post-to-post extension.

Personally, I think think this was a terribly organized competition. It was great the years before, but I do believe that many events were screwed up this year. At least DP made it fun to watch.

The All-Star Game will take place today at 6 pm on VERSUS.

Complete SuperSkills Results:

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=page&page=NHLPage&id=20414

Highlights:

Part 1: http://www.nhl.tv/team/launch.htm?type=fvod&id=11484&catid=539

Part 2: http://www.nhl.tv/team/launch.htm?type=fvod&id=11485&catid=539

Part 3: http://www.nhl.tv/team/launch.htm?type=fvod&id=11488&catid=539



Let's Go East!!!