Alex Ovechkin Wins Breakaway Challenge for Third Straight Year

By Ian Oland (@ianoland) on January 30, 2011 | 0 Comment

Ovi swings with the knob of his stick during the Breakaway Challenge. (Photo credit: Kevin C. Cox)

Alex Ovechkin won his third straight Breakaway Challenge title tonight at the 2010-11 NHL SuperSkills Competition. How did he win it? With an unbelievable series of moves in his second and fourth attempts. In his second breakaway, Ovechkin smoothly juggled the puck in mid-air from center ice. He then knocked the puck up high up to himself, switched the position of his twig, and then swung with butt end of his stick. In his fourth and final attempt, Ovi dribbled the puck down the ice with the knob of his stick, went to his knees, got back up, and then went backhand on Marc-Andre Fleury. After he scored, Ovi sheathed his stick Chi Chi Rodriquez style as players from both benches laughed and banged their sticks against the ice. Ovechkin had a giant smile on his face the entire time.

When asked about his moves, Ovechkin replied, “I’m so excited right now, I can’t remember.” Fair enough.

Ovi and Green’s Team Staal defeated Team Lidstrom tonight 33 to 22. Below the jump, we have video of Ovechkin’s breakaway attempts and the other most noteable Capital moments of the night.

Video: Alex Ovechkin in the Breakaway Challenge

In the fastest skater competition, Mike Green lost to Steven Stamkos by a half a second. It wasn’t really all that close, especially when you examine the video below. Though that 25 second delay must have made it really hard for Green to get a good jump. The Islanders’ Michael Grabner won the event.

Video: Green vs. Stamkos in Fastest Skater Competition

Alex Ovechkin had a heckuva time during the hardest shot competition. On his first attempt, he shot the puck 98.2 MPH and then Ovechfailed. Ovi somehow didn’t see a wire on the side of the ice, tripped, and then swam to center ice laughing hysterically. It was probably my favorite moment of the night, besides the Goalie race between Tim Thomas and Cam Ward where the Boston goaltender face-planted as he went around the net.

Video: Ovi trips over a wire and swims to center ice

But the klutziness wasn’t over yet. On Ovechkin’s second attempt, he broke his stick in half. He still managed to register his shot at 48.3 MPH. Though was that the puck or the blade of his stick?

Video: Ovi breaks his stick on his second attempt

The rules deemed that Ovechkin got to get another go at it, so he skated over to the bench and Pens-emy Kris Letang donated his twig to use. On Ovi’s third attempt, the shot didn’t register. On Ovi’s fourth attempt, the same thing happened. Did the Russian Machine break the radar gun? With his arms extended in frustration, NHL officials scurried over and tried desperately to fix the gun. Ovechkin got a huge applause from the crowd during the delay and then got one more attempt. His fifth shot finally got recorded and was clocked at 97.2 MPH. It was quite an impressive display considering he wasn’t even using his own stick or blade. Plus, he had to shoot so many times in a row. That had to be very tiring. Full video of his comedy of errors can be found here. Anyways, Zdeno Chara went on to win the event by breaking his own record at 105.9 MPH.

What a night!

Photos (Click to enlarge)