Slick-shooting Sergei

Fedorov wins hardest shot with blast of 101.5 mph

Sergei Fedorov's top two shots were enough to beat the rest of the field. AP

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Sergei Fedorov didn't outskate the All-Stars this time, he just outshot them.

Fedorov won the hardest shot competition in the NHL All-Star skills competition Friday night, topping Rob Blake and Jarome Iginla, by recording the only drive in triple digits.

The Detroit Red Wings forward might have been saving his strength earlier in the night. Fedorov, a two-time winner as the fastest skater, was defeated in the event by Carolina's Sami Kapanen.

Kapanen beat the field, racing around the rink in 14.039 seconds.

Fedorov's winning shot was clocked at 101.5 mph, far better than Blake's 97.4 and Iginla's 97.2. His second best attempt, clocked at 97.5, still would have won.

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"The first shot I took didn't give me much confidence, but I hit the second one really cleanly," said Fedorov, who used a two-piece stick, not the trendy graphite one-piece. "I took a good shot, but I don't know if I have the hardest shot of all the guys here. It was a nice shot."

The record in the event is held by longtime defenseman Al Iafrate, clocked at 105.2 mph in 1993.

The winners of the individual competitions earn $4,500, while second place gets $2,250.

Kapanen, who skated last, drew a buzz from the crowd at the Staples Center with his zip around the circumference of the rink.

Fedorov, second with 14.201, won the competition in 1992 and 1994, with times of 14.363 and 13.525.

Hall of Famer Mike Gartner holds the record with a time of 13.510, set in 1993.

Iginla and Vancouver's Markus Naslund -- tied for the NHL scoring lead -- also finished even in the shooting accuracy drill, needing just six shots to hit the four bull's-eye targets placed in each corner of the net.

New York's Mark Messier was 4-for-4 in 1996, and former Boston Bruins and Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ray Bourque was also perfect in 1992.

Goalies Patrick Roy and Dominik Hasek each stopped five of six shots in the goalie competition. Pittsburgh's Mario Lemieux scored on Detroit's Hasek, and Naslund beat Colorado's Roy.

"I gave up a goal only to the best player in the world, so it wasn't that bad," Hasek said.

In the team competitions, each player on the first-place team gets $2,000 while each player on the second-place team gets $1,000.

In the team puck control relay, the final skater for the World Team, San Jose's Teemu Selanne, made up a one-third of a rink deficit to North American's anchor, Colorado's Joe Sakic, to give the World team the win.

In the individual team puck control competition, Anaheim's Paul Kariya won for the fourth year in a row, beating Chicago's Alexei Zhamnov.

The competitors are chosen by NHL Hockey Operations, but players can opt out or ask in if they don't like where they've been placed.

 

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