Lalime's lights out

If there's one thing a goaltender needs it's a short memory. Ask Patrick Lalime.

Shaking off a performance he wasn't pleased with in Sunday's loss at Anaheim, when he allowed 5 goals on 25 shots, Lalime bounced back with a game-stealing effort Wednesday night at the United Center.

Lalime turned aside 32 shots to post his first shutout of the season as the Hawks held off the Phoenix Coyotes 1-0 to move within 6 points of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"It didn't go the way I would have liked it (Sunday) and you want to bounce back from that," Lalime said. "But I put that behind me."

Lalime made 16 of his saves in the third period when the Coyotes pressed for the tying goal.

"That third period he played was a heck of a period for us," Hawks coach Denis Savard said.

Lalime's best save of the night came with 8:43 remaining when he stuck out his glove to bat away a shot from Ed Jovanovski from in tight.

The Hawks successfully killed a 6-on-4 Phoenix power play in the final 47 seconds that resulted from a hooking penalty to Patrick Kane and Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky pulling goalie Ilya Bryzgalov.

"I don't think they even got a shot on goal there," Lalime said. "The defense did a good job in front of the net making sure I could see the pucks all night. It was a great effort right to the last second."

With 66 points, the Hawks caught St. Louis for 12th place in the West and trail Columbus by 1 and Phoenix by 3.

"It was a huge win," Lalime said. "We know how big the points are for us right now. A 1-0 game -- those are the games we have to win."

Lalime made a first-period goal by Jason Williams hold up as he outdueled Bryzgalov.

"We had some chances, but their guy was good," Gretzky said, referring to Lalime. "They had some chances and our guy was good."

For the Hawks, the win was soured by another injury to Martin Havlat that has the potential to be serious.

Havlat hurt his left shoulder again on his first shift of the second period and didn't return. The Hawks weren't saying much about it after the game, only that Havlat would be re-examined again today.

"We've got to move on, that's the way it is," Savard said. "We still have a good club in there, kids that care and want to play hard and compete and get to the playoffs. We'll miss a good player if that's the case, but we'll be all right."

It's the same shoulder Havlat hurt on opening night in Minnesota, causing him to miss the next 22 games. He also had surgery on that shoulder in Ottawa.

The Hawks already were playing without three key injured regulars in Robert Lang, Nikolai Khabibulin and Brent Sopel.

Havlat would make it four.

"It's going to be tough again, but I guess we're kind of used to losing guys," Jonathan Toews said. "It's always tough to lose a big part of our team like that, but we've got to battle to make up for it."