Chicagoland native Kendall Coyne Schofield made history Friday night when she became the first woman to compete in the NHL All-Star Skills Competition.
Coyne Schofield competed in the Fastest Skater event for Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon, who has 71 points this season decided to withdraw from the contest after reportedly undergoing an MRI on his foot Thursday.
Coyne Schofield clocked in at 14.346 seconds for seventh place, which topped one NHL player — Arizona Coyotes’ Clayton Keller (14.526 seconds). Her time was slightly slower than her 14.226 seconds time during Thursday’s testing.
Olympic Gold Medalist @KendallCoyne kicked off the Fastest Skater competition in style! pic.twitter.com/4Ug3dpsuja
— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) January 26, 2019
Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid won the event for the third straight year with a time of 13.378 seconds and took home $25,000 in prize money.
Coyne Schofield was originally slated to attend the skills competition with three other female players to demonstrate the various skills but was asked by the Avalanche to be MacKinnon’s replacement.
Colorado announced Friday night that MacKinnon had “someone else in mind to compete for Fastest Skater” and tagged the United States women’s national team member and Minnesota Whitecaps forward on Twitter.
She happily agreed, saying, “It would be my honor! I’ll get to the rink as fast as I can!”
It would be my honor! I’ll get to the rink as fast as I can! #NHLAllStar #HockeyIsForEveryone https://t.co/D0FyiQ1uZM
— Kendall Coyne Schofield (@KendallCoyne) January 25, 2019
This isn’t the first time she’s broke a gender barrier. She was the lone woman to play in the Chicago Pro Hockey League last July at MB Ice Arena in Chicago.
She has won five gold medals at the women’s World Championship, a gold at the 2018 Olympics and silver at the 2014 Olympics.