Team Alfredsson wins All-Star skills

OTTAWA – Patrick Kane’s Superman cape and Zdeno Chara’s blistering hot slap shot weren’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 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 face off today in the All-Star game.

“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.

Kane, the Blackhawks forward and Team Chara member, provided the entertainment value in the breakaway challenge. He wore Clark Kent glasses and had teammate Marian Hossa tie a Superman cape around his neck.

In the relay challenge, the Sedin twins, Henrik and Daniel, showed remarkable skill in the passing portion, in being uncanny in their ability to thread a pass into nets spread across the neutral zone. And making the challenge even harder was that players had to flip the puck over a raised board laid across the ice.

Team Alfredsson won both relays to score two points and earned an additional point finishing it in the fastest time – 2:08.376 – to build a 9-6 lead over Chara.

Team Alfredsson got off to a solid start by going 4-2 in the fastest skater competition.