AHL All-Star Classic
The American Hockey League All-Star Classic is an ice hockey friendship game of the best and most popular players of the North American professional league American Hockey League , which was first played in 1942. In the current format, the AHL Western Conference All-Star Team competes against the AHL Eastern Conference All-Star Team .
history
The game, then still called the AHL All-Star Game, was first held on February 3, 1942, when a team from the Eastern Conference met a team from the Western Conference in Cleveland , Ohio , and the East just won 5-4. It took twelve and a half years until the second edition, however, when an all-star team of the league met the reigning Calder Cup winner, the Cleveland Barons , in October 1954 . In the following years up to 1959, the event was held regularly in this format. Since the timing of the competition often fluctuated between October and January - i.e. at the beginning or the middle of the season - it happened that two games took place within a calendar year, but then a longer break followed. The All-Star Game of 1959 was also the last for the next 36 years.
It was not until the 1994/95 season, when the NHL season started late due to a lockout , that the league management reintroduced the benefit game. In the Providence Civic Center a Canadian met an American all-star team, which the Canadians won 6-4. Since then, the game has been an integral part of the season's calendar and is usually held on a weekend at the end of January or the beginning of February. Since 1996, a so-called skills competition has been held in which players compare their individual skills - such as speed, shooting power and shooting precision - with one another. In 1997 the name was finally changed to the current name All-Star Classic and the format was introduced, in which a Canadian selection meets a formation consisting of Americans and Europeans. This format was changed for the 2011 edition so that a team from the Western Conference meets one from the Eastern Conference .
As part of the All-Star Classic, the new members have been accepted into the AHL Hall of Fame since 2006 .
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