Khabibulin's 10-game losing streak finally ends
CALGARY, Alberta -- They are the Blackhawks' highest paid players, which means Nikolai Khabibulin and Martin Havlat are paid to be a difference-makers.
Khabibulin was a difference-maker and then some Thursday night in a 3-1 win over the Calgary Flames that snapped the Hawks' five-game losing streak.
Khabibulin was brilliant in the third period, making 6 point-blank saves in the final 13 minutes, one better than the last.
"He was just great," said Patrick Sharp, who had a goal and an assist. "It could have been a different story in the third period."
The win snapped Khabibulin's personal 10-game losing streak. His last victory was Dec. 26 against Nashville.
"It's obviously nice to win; it hasn't happened in a while," Khabibulin said. "I thought I played some good games during the losing streak, but it didn't happen."
Duncan Keith, Sharp and Yanic Perreault (into an empty net late) scored the goals to back Khabibulin. The Hawks also killed all 4 Calgary power plays, including 61 seconds of a 5-on-3 in the third period.
"I'm proud of our guys; we've got lots of life left," said Hawks coach Denis Savard. "I know we've been though a tough little skid here. But at the end of the day the way we played tonight, with great goaltending, obviously, if we continue to play that way we're going to be successful on a lot of nights."
Havlat had an assist, but just 1 shot on goal. He had no shots in Wednesday's loss at Edmonton and has been mostly ordinary since returning from a shoulder injury.
Savard had another talk with Havlat on Thursday morning and expects the veteran winger to turn his game up a notch.
"I kind of went back to him and told him when he was in Ottawa, the series I watched before we signed him against Tampa, I told him he played like a mad man," Savard said. "I told him I wanted him to play like that."
Havlat has only 6 goals in 26 games and in most games hasn't even come close to scoring.
"Part of it is I think he feels a lot of pressure on his shoulders, the fact that we're not winning and he wants to win," Savard said. "He didn't say that, but I know that he's feeling that he needs to do more for us to win."
Havlat was relieved to finally get a win.
"When you lose and things aren't going the way you want to, for sure it's frustrating," Havlat said. "I'm not playing the way I'd like to, but the whole team wasn't playing the way we wanted to. Tonight we did and that's why we won."
Savard juggled his lines once again, using Havlat and Tuomo Ruutu as wings with Sharp and going with a second line of Robert Lang, Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien.
The Hawks got goals from Keith and Sharp in the second period. Sharp's 25th goal came at 15:07, two seconds after a power play expired, and snapped a 1-1 tie.