Sweet revenge tastes oh so good to Hawks

You can tell the status New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur has reached in his career just by listening to the reverence in which those in the locker room speak of him.

He's also thought of pretty highly in his own locker room as well.

But after the Blackhawks' thrilling 3-2 overtime victory Friday night at the United Center, you could hear it in the voices of those who scored: getting one past the NHL's all-time leader in victories is something that won't soon be forgotten.

And getting revenge for Brodeur breaking Patrick Roy's record against you in New Jersey earlier in the month makes it all the sweeter.

"It was a tough loss against them a week or so ago, but it was pretty cool in the sense that Brodeur got his record and everything," said Kris Versteeg, who did a borderline spin-o-rama move from the side of the Devils net before beating Brodeur to open the scoring on Friday. "It was a memorable night for everyone

who was there to see the greatest goalie of all time get his record.

"Just to play against that guy and be in the aura of Martin Brodeur is pretty special."

The 36-year-old nearly single-handedly kept the Devils in the game in the first period as the Hawks had 5 power play chances but converted only once and went to intermission trailing 2-1 despite outshooting the Devils 20-14.

After battling back to tie the score on Martin Havlat's 26th goal of the year in the second period, Brodeur (39 saves) and his Hawks counterpart Nikolai Khabibulin (28 saves) put on a clinic worthy of their four combined Stanley Cup titles down the stretch.

At the 3:36 mark of the overtime, Hawks defenseman Brent Seabrook blasted in his seventh goal of the season past a partially screened Brodeur for the game-winner.

"I never saw the winning shot, I saw (him) wind up but I didn't see it," Brodeur said.

Seabrook figured as much.

"He's one of the best goalies to play in the NHL, so I got a bit lucky he didn't see that shot," Seabrook said.