Huet hot goalie now

This is funny. Now that Nikolai Khabibulin is healthy again he might not be able to get the net back.

It would be hard for Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville not to come back with Cristobal Huet on Friday in Colorado after the way Huet shut down the Ottawa Senators 2-0 on Wednesday night at the United Center.

Huet had 23 saves to record his first shutout of the season, but it was more the quality of his stops, particularly on power plays, that made the difference.

"We got through some serious kills, but our goalie was a significant factor," Quenneville said. "Huey had a spectacular night with significant, high-quality saves, a couple of them on the (penalty-kill).

"He's had a pretty good stretch and none better than tonight."

Huet is 3-0-1 in his last 4 starts and appears to be finding his game after a slow start.

"The last two games he's been really good," Hawks center Colin Fraser said. "Obviously he's a good goalie; he's proved that. He's found himself, I think."

Huet was the Hawks' best penalty-killer on a night when penalty-killing was the difference. Ottawa was 0-for-6 on the power play, with the Hawks killing a 5-on-3 in the first period that lasted 64 seconds and a four-minute power play in the second period after Patrick Kane drew a double minor for high-sticking.

The Hawks worked on penalty-killing for a good portion of practice Tuesday. Fraser, Matt Walker, Brent Sopel, Duncan Keith and Dave Bolland were especially good in Wednesday's win.

"We've talked about our penalty-kill lately, about how we had to be better," Fraser said. "We were top five the first 15 games and kind of dropped to 12th or 13th.

"We had a big meeting about it and we got better tonight. We did a walk-through yesterday to really go over exactly what each guy's role is, and I think we executed that tonight."

Kane scored a first-period, power-play goal, which Huet made stand up until Troy Brouwer added an empty-netter in the final minute.

"It was a tight game and we didn't give them much," Huet said. "The PK did a great job, and we didn't give their big line much."

The Hawks held Ottawa's big three of Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza to 6 shots on goal combined.

"I like the way we've played over this last stretch of games (3-0-1) since we've come back from the trip," Quenneville said. "We want to make sure we keep playing the same way. I think we've created a standard of how we should be expecting to play every night, whether it's home or away."

Jonathan Toews played 18 minutes in a typically strong performance in front of Senators coach Craog Hartsburg, who won a world junior championship with a then 17-year-old Toews on his team.

"He's just an unbelievable kid, a complete player," Hartsburg said. "In two or three years from now he'll be even more dominant than he is now. He'll probably be as good a two-player as there will be in the game."

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