PENS SHOW SKILLS IN SUNDAY'S COMPETITION

WORCESTER, MA - The PlanetUSA All-Stars took home bragging rights on Sunday evening, recording an 18-12 win in the 2009 AHL All-Star Skills Competition at the DCU Center in Worcester, MA. 

The AHL All-Star Game takes place on Monday evening at 7:00pm.

Ben Lovejoy, Jeff Taffe (PlanetUSA) and Chris Minard (Canada), represented the Penguins in the competition, and enjoyed the laid back affair in the middle of the season.

“It was fun to be out there.  There’s a lot of talent on that ice, and it was just nice to be included,” said Lovejoy, who is making his first all-star appearance in just his second year in the league.

Lovejoy was tapped to take part in the hardest shot contest prior to the event, which by his own admission isn’t one of his top skills.

“I was surprised that I was doing it.  It’s certainly not one of the strong points in my game,” said Lovejoy, who didn’t look out of place in the contest, registering shots of 91 and 92.2 miles per hours.  “I was just trying to hit the net.  I knew exactly kind of what I was going to be around.”

Minard, strangely, was put into the fastest skater competition and not into the hardest shot competition, which seemed like a no-brainer for the second-highest goal scorer in the league this year.

The quickness with which the event took place also surprised him.

“It kind of caught me off guard, I was like a nice couple little laps to or something to get warmed up will be all right.  It kind of happened quick.  [The official] just said ‘Set.’  And all of a sudden I went ‘Oh boy, I’ve got to go.’  I got off to a rough start actually a little bit.  It felt like a rough start.  Oh well, it was fun.”

Minard impressed the doubters, posting a second place time of 14.250 in the one-lap challenge - that’s faster than former Penguin Jonathan Filewich made it around the ice when he won the event in 2007.

“I was happy with it,” said Minard, whose personal goal was just to finish ahead of some of the youth hockey players also taking part in the evening’s festivities.  “They were buzzing around there pretty good too.  It would have been kind of embarrassing.”

Minard didn’t fare so well in the accuracy challenge, hitting only one of the four targets in eight tries.  That might sound strange for one of the best goal producers in the league over the past three seasons, but teammate Jeff Taffe said skill isn’t the only way to put the biscuit in the basket.

“Really when I score is when I tip it in front of the net or get a rebound,” stated Taffe, who did find the back of the net in the pass and score event - a three-on-none against the goaltender.  “They don’t have a competition for that out here.”

SKILLS NOTES:  Worcester’s Derek Joslin won the hardest shot contest with a blast of 98.6 miles per hour, and Philadelphia’s Jared Ross won the fastest skater competition with a time of 14.187…Barry Brust (Houston) and Cory Schneider Manitoba) both went a perfect six-for-six in the breakaway relay challenge.