No denying Big Ben

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This article was published 03/12/2015 (3573 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ben Chiarot gave it his best shot. The Winnipeg Jets defenceman unleashed a couple of howitzers in the hardest shot competition at team’s fourth annual skills competition, twice eclipsing the 100 m.p.h. mark.

And while he defended his team title with a 107.7 m.p.h. cannon blast, his three extra attempts after the event to best the NHL record of 108.8 — set by Boston Bruins behemoth Zdeno Chara — fell just a tad short.

“The stick breaks down after a few good whacks, maybe it was breaking down a bit,” said Chiarot after Thursday’s event, which drew 10,058 fans to the MTS Centre. “You know, 108, that’s still a whole mile per hour harder than I shot. Maybe with a brand-new stick I could come closer, but that’s a hard shot.

“I just caught it clean, low and right in the middle of the net. There’s not much to it, just hit it as hard as you can and hit the net.”

Chiarot’s first attempt of 104.3 was also the second highest of the event. Tyler Myers (102.3), Antony Peluso (101) and Paul Postma (100.9) were the other Jet players, to crack the 100 m.p.h. mark.

“I practised it a lot as a kid and obviously on the ice every day we’re taking a lot of shots and I usually work on it after practice,” Chiarot said. “It’s funny, Buff (Dustin Byfuglien) said, ‘Yeah, you can shoot that hard, but you still have to pass it to me in the

game.’ ”

Team Blue edged Team White 21-20 to capture the event. All proceeds from the night got to the Jets True North Foundation and the NHLPA Goals and Dreams Fund.

Other events / Other winners

Postma defended his fastest-skater crown with a time of 14.16 seconds, with Nikolaj Ehlers and Alex Burmistrov finishing at 14.30 seconds.

Mathieu Perreault hit four targets on four shots in 9.5 seconds to win the accuracy competition.

“I practised that as a kid,” said Perreault. “My dad had a net set up in our basement with targets. All these guys can hit targets, too. It’s just I happened to hit them.”

Perreault, Burmistrov and Peluso combined to win one heat for Team White in the puck relay competition with Team Blue’s Jacob Trouba, Joel Armia and Chiarot winning the second heat.

In the breakaway event, Postma, Stuart, Copp and Peluso scored for Team White while Myers, Blake Wheeler, Drew Stafford, Adam Lowry and Joel Armia scored for Team Blue.

“It’s awesome that we can come here in a calm, relaxed state where you don’t have to worry about playing or the game situation,” said Postma.

“A lot of the fans that are here tonight don’t get the opportunity to come to a lot of our games and without having the glass there we can interact with them. It’s great for the kids who get to see us up close and we can actually have conversations with them.”

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPEdTait