The Lehigh Valley Phantoms' Taylor Leier might have thought he was being pranked.

As it turned out, no one was trying to pull a fast one on him or fellow AHL all-star Jordan Oesterle of the Bakersfield Condors.What happened to the two players was one of the funniest events that took place during the skills competition Sunday night at the PPL Center in Allentown during the AHL All-Star Classic Weekend.Participating in the puck control relay for the Eastern Conference, Leier was matched up against Oesterle.The pair raced down the ice, where they were supposed to find a puck that they then had to steer through obstacles on their way back to the other end of the ice. Things were going well until both skaters reached the far end of the ice and discovered that there were no pucks waiting for them. The two looked at each other in confusion."I looked at him, and then he looked at me, and we were like 'what? It was just awkward. But we both kind of laughed about it and we just skated back down to the other end. It was a good warmup," said Leier.When the race was repeated - this time with pucks - Oesterle beat Leier.Leier wasn't the only Phantoms player to take part in the skills event.Jordan Weal and T.J. Brennan, Lehigh Valley's other representatives in the All-Star Game, were also on hand for the competition, which included puck control relay, fastest skater, rapid fire, hardest shot, accuracy shooting, pass and score, and breakaway relay.Weal defeated Cleveland's Oliver Bjorkstrand in their one-on-one race. Unfortunately, the event was a relay and Weal's team was also defeated."I thought it was just more turning then that straight away speed," said Weal. "But we couldn't pull off the win in the end."In the rapid fire competition, which pitted the goalies against each other, Brennan and Leier were among those firing pucks, ironically at Charlotte's Michael Leighton, a former member of the Phantoms.Brennan competed in the accuracy shooting event, hitting three of the four targets. The Eastern Conference picked up two points for their prowess in shooting accuracy, closing the gap at the time to a 7-5 Western Conference lead. The East came from behind in the pass-and-score event, with Weal's team scoring on two of their three attempts. The win in accuracy put the Eastern Conference ahead for the first time at 11-10.The Western Conference dominated the final event, the breakaway relay, where none of the Eastern Conference players were able to score, giving the Western Conference all of the points and a 15-11 win.Earlier in the day, there was a PhanFest and tailgate event for the fans, with the day being capped off by the skills competition.AHL President and CEO David Andrews was impressed by the reaction of the fans in the Lehigh Valley, a key point in how he is gauging the success of the weekend. Andrews was impressed not only by the standing room crowd of 8,424 fans, but how the fans welcomed and cheered for players from teams other than the Phantoms."What a tremendous group of fans here in the Lehigh Valley," said Andrews.