Havlat, Khabibulin are both money

The Blackhawks weren't young Thursday night.

They weren't all that nervous.

And they weren't scared.

They just weren't very good.

At least not until Martin Havlat, auditioning for an entire league searching for scoring, got a fortunate bounce off two Calgary skates late in the third period.

Havlat sweetly collected the puck off the turnover in the corner, calmly walked out in traffic and fired at Flames netminder Miikka Kiprusoff, who made a pad save but gave up a big rebound.

As though he expected it to come right back to him, Havlat followed it up, pounced on the rebound, and pounded it home for a 2-2 tie in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff opener.

The Hawks had sudden life, when it appeared a Game 1 defeat was certain.

"We were fortunate to get the equalizer. (Havlat) gathered in a rebound in a tight area,'' said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville. "He's a top player in our league. He sees plays and makes plays with the game on the line.''

The Havlat goal sent the game into overtime, which lasted all of 12 seconds. Dave Bolland found Havlat cruising down the slot and he fired it home for the game-winner as Andrew Ladd interfered with Kiprusoff.

"He got hit into the goalie,'' Quenneville said. "But that's every playoff game. We want to get traffic at the net.''

Havlat took advantage, just as he'll soon be taking advantage of free agency. If he were willing to give the Hawks a hometown discount, it would have happened already.

The flip side is he's trying to show a couple dozen teams he's worth big money, and a big postseason will do that, so that's good for the Hawks.

His effort the last couple months, and especially Thursday night, willing to travel in rough neighborhoods when most others wouldn't, is going to earn him a big contract, one the Hawks can't possibly afford unless they move out salary currently on the books.

Along the same lines, Nikolai Khabibulin, who was very good in Game 1, is displaying his wares for all to see, hoping to score another large contract before he's finished.

So the Hawks are tied to a goalie they don't even trust to play, Cristobal Huet, and there's no team in the NHL foolish enough to take on that nightmare of a contract.

But it didn't take a brain surgeon to see the Hawks' dilemma before the trade deadline, and they chose the easy and popular route.

They kept the two veterans in order to win games now, sacrificing some of the future, and the chance to get something in return.

The choice looked very good Thursday night, and as long as the Hawks keep winning playoff games, it will remain popular.

Should the Hawks fail to win the Stanley Cup, it won't look quite as smart, and won't be quite as popular if those two free agents sign elsewhere, especially with the Hawks' close rivals.

But Havlat and Khabibulin were, by a mile, the Hawks' two best players Thursday night. In fact, hardly anyone else even showed up.

The Hawks were dominated in just about every facet of the game, except goaltending, and perhaps running over the goalie, in which the Hawks smartly held a big advantage.

Aside from that, the Flames were more physical, as you expected them to be, and they intimidated some of the Hawks' skill players, especially Patrick Kane and Brian Campbell.

But Havlat and Khabibulin bailed out their teammates, and good thing they did.

One game doesn't make a series, and this one may yet be a long one, but the worst thing the Hawks could have done was let a disinterested, veteran Calgary team riddled with injuries, suddenly become interested.

You also have a coach in Mike Keenan who's been known to throw in the towel, and you'd rather he not be engaged.

So while the Hawks only lead the series 1-0, it truly feels bigger than that this morning.

brozner@dailyherald.com