NEW YORK (AP) The big winners in the NHL All-Star voting appear to be the ballot-stuffers.
Buffalo Sabres center Zemgus Girgensons was the leading vote-getter in the six-week campaign with 1,574,896.
Girgensons is the lone non-member of the Chicago Blackhawks to crack the initial six selections for the Jan. 25 game in Columbus. He ranked tied for 49th in the NHL with 11 goals, tied for 132nd with 20 points, tied for 208th in assists and tied for 485th with a plus/minus of -2 after Friday's games.
The Latvian-born Girgensons appears to have benefited by a spike in European voting. Nearly 27 percent were cast by fans outside of North America. That's a 7,000 percent increase from three years ago, the last NHL All-Star game.
Blackhawks forwards Patrick Kane (a Buffalo native), Jonathan Toews, defensemen Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook, and goalie Corey Crawford earned the other five spots based on fan voting.
None of these five players ranked among the league's top five in goals, assists, points, plus/minus, goals-against average or save percentage through Friday.
