Hawks' backup goalies know time is now

The scrimmaging is over and now the real competition starts for the Blackhawks.

The Hawks will play only four exhibition games on North American ice before departing for Europe, the first of which takes place Saturday night against the Washington Capitals at the United Center.

Even though Cristobal Huet is expected to start in goal and possibly play the full game against the Capitals, the biggest story of the preseason will be the battle between Corey Crawford and Antti Niemi to be the backup goalie.

While Niemi might have played a tad better in the scrimmages, it's still considered a dead heat going into the exhibition games.

"It's definitely going to be a tough decision, but at the end of the day the goalies will be making it for us," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said.

Niemi and Crawford were teammates at Rockford last season, splitting the goaltending duties, but the stakes are a lot higher now.

"It's a tough situation because you have two goalies and only one spot," Niemi said. "The better one is going to be here, and that's fair to both of us."

Each goalie has his strengths. Niemi is quicker, but Crawford has four years of American Hockey League experience playing the angles on the smaller ice surface.

"They both big and quick," Quenneville said. "Corey is patient and plays his angles well and moves swell. Antti is a little quicker and (with) his movement down low, he covers a lot of net with his size and agility.

"But I think both guys have the ability to not just be goalies at our level; they've got a chance to be real good goalies at our level."

Crawford once was considered the Hawks' so-called goalie of the future, the guy who would ultimately succeed Nikolai Khabibulin, but those plans got detoured two summers ago when Huet was surprisingly signed as a free agent.

"Last year, I thought maybe it would be my time to step in and play a full year here, but once you start thinking like that, trades and things happen so fast," Crawford said.

"I'm just trying to get good momentum going and feel good for the exhibition games. I feel like I can play at this level and I want to challenge myself to try and compete and be here all year. This is a very important time for me."

Another trip to the minors could signal Crawford's time is up with the organization that drafted him in the second round, 52nd overall, in 2003 - at least when his contract expires next summer.

Crawford doesn't consider himself to be under pressure with so much on the line.

"I don't think it's pressure," he said. "It's mostly just consistency, trying not to be up and down all the time. You have to start playing as well as you can as fast as you can."

Neither Crawford nor Niemi have ever been a full-time backup, which doesn't worry Quenneville.

"Either one of these guys can push Cristóbal," said Quenneville.

After the four preseason games in North America, the Hawks plan to take both Crawford and Niemi to Europe for the two exhibition games in Zurich, Switzerland.

"Both guys have paid some dues to get the chance to get to the next level," Quenneville said. "That's one of the reasons why we were comfortable this summer, knowing Habby was not here anymore but knowing both of these guys can play."