On Friday night, the U.S. women's ice hockey team was the talk of the internet. The National Hockey League hosted day one of its All-Star Weekend with the Skills Competition and made history at the event.
Nathan MacKinnon, the captain of the Colorado Avalanche, was unable to participate in the weekend's activities at the last minute, so the Avalanche reached out to Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield to see if she could fill in.
Nate’s here in San Jose for #NHLAllStar, but has someone else in mind to compete for Fastest Skater...@KendallCoyne, what do you think!?
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) January 25, 2019
Coyne Schofield became the first woman to ever compete in any NHL All-Star Weekend events. She brought some friends with her, too.
Brianna Decker competed unofficially in the Premier Passing event and finished with a time of 1 minute, 6 seconds. The official winner completed the competition with a time of 1 minute, 9 seconds. After a little rallying from the social media community, Decker was given $25,000, as was awarded to the winner of the event.
Coyne raced in the official faster skater competition and clocked a time of 14.346 seconds. Her speed no doubt impressed, as her time was within one second of three-time champion Connor McDavid.
The U.S. women's hockey players gained praise from the NHL teams, players, Olympians, journalists and more. Here's what they had to say:
U.S. Women's Hockey Stars Shine In The NHL All-Star Skills Competition
