Longo impresses but Rassell’s team tops

By Ryan McCracken on February 14, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

Mark Rassell may not have defended his showtime shootout crown in Tuesday’s Medicine Hat Tigers ATB Financial Skills Competition, but Trevor Longo couldn’t have won it without him.

The 17-year-old defenceman edged out fellow rookie Baxter Anderson by half a point to take the title with 108.5 over two attempts — the second of which featured Longo’s best impression of his captain, flowing blonde locks and all.

“I was looking for creative things to do when I first found out I was in the shootout. I knew he won last year so I decided to just become him,” said Longo, whose initial attempt featured a helmet with a red player indicator while teammate Elijah Brown controlled his actions with a PlayStation controller.”My billets helped me with that one. We like playing that game and it was obviously fun with Elijah coming out and doing it with me.”

While Rassell lost the signature event, his squad came back for an 8-4 victory over Team Quenneville in the overall competition after entering the 3-on-3 overtime finale in a 3-3 stalemate. The Tigers captain added he’s proud to hand the torch to Longo after such an impressive first appearance in the showtime shootout.

“I loved it. It’s my last year and obviously I wanted to win but I didn’t have the best moves —Longo came out and had two great moves, they were hilarious. There were so many funny moves this year,” said Rassell, adding it’s always great to interact with fans while raising funds for the MS Society. “It’s a nice reminder to the fans that there are people underneath these jerseys.”

Ryan Jevne defended his fastest skater title after beating James Hamblin in the final to give Team Rassell an early lead with a top time of 14.90 seconds.

David Quenneville answered back for his team by winning the most accurate shot — hitting all four targets in 12.44 seconds — then clocking in the hardest slap shot at 94 mph.

Rassell’s squad fought back into the contest with a victory in the team relay before Josh Williams drew even by winning the elimination shootout to set the stage for 3-on-3 overtime — where Rassell stole the game away with a hat trick performance.