Players shine at NHL all-star event

MONTREAL, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Boston's Zdeno Chara captured his third straight title for the hardest hit shot at the NHL SuperSkills competition in Montreal.

The Bruins' captain recorded a blast of 105.4 mph when the event kicked off all-star weekend Saturday night at Montreal's Bell Centre.

The shot eclipsed the previous high of 105.2 mph set in 1993 by Al Lafrate.

"I knew I would have to put a really hard shot," Chara said. "Basically I gave it all I had, and I'm just glad it worked out."

Elsewhere, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin outdueled Ottawa's Dany Heatly in the accuracy shooting event; Edmonton center Andrew Cogliano won the fastest skater competition with a time of 14.31 seconds; Shane Doan of Phoenix was the last man standing in the Elimination Shootout; and Washington's Alex Ovechkin won the Breakaway Challenge for the second year in a row.

Malkin and Heatly are just the fifth and sixth players ever to score four straight times in the accuracy shooting event.