OTTAWA (AP) ― Patrick Kane’s Superman cape and Zdeno Chara’s blistering hot slap shot wasn’t enough to beat Daniel Alfredsson and his team stocked with hometown favorites in the NHL All-Star skills competition Saturday night.
Team Alfredsson beat Team Chara 21-12, easily clinching the victory in the final-round shootout challenge. Alfredsson had one of his team’s 10 shootout goals in outscoring Chara 10-3.
That was enough to get the hometown crowd on its feet, cheering on a Senators-stocked team that Alfredsson selected in the draft Thursday night.
Chara did break his own skills competition record for hardest shot with a blast at 108.8 mph. That bettered the mark of 105.9 he set in Raleigh last year.
The two teams will now face off Sunday in the All-Star game.
Chara gave his team a shot ― literally and physically ― by helping his team to a 3-2 win in the fifth round of the competition, cutting Alfredsson’s lead to 11-9.
“I tried to do my best. Obviously I wanted to do it over here as well. I had great years in Ottawa and I’m happy I could do it,” Chara said in an interview broadcast over the video scoreboard, which drew plenty of applause. Chara spent four seasons with the Senators before signing with the Bruins in 2006.
All four Chara’s shot actually bettered the record he set last year as well as his closest opponent, Team Alfredsson defenseman Shea Weber, whose best was timed at 106 mph.
Entertaining as the competition was for the soldout house, it was competing with troubling news regarding Sidney Crosby’s status shortly after the event began. The Penguins announced that Crosby had a neck injury, which had fully healed, in addition to a concussion after he visited a doctor in California.
