Chicago – This was what the Chicago Blackhawks had in mind when they signed veteran goalie Nikolai Khabibulin to a four-year, $27 million contract in August.
The Russian, a disappointment even when healthy this season, returned to the lineup Thursday night after a 10-game absence with a groin injury and made 37 saves in leading the Blackhawks to a 4-2 victory over the Avalanche at the United Center.
The loss snapped Colorado’s winning streak at eight games, with a Saturday home game coming up against the Detroit Red Wings.
The Avalanche went just 1-for-10 on the power play and managed only goals from Marek Svatos – his team-high 28th of the season – and Antti Laaksonen in losing for the first time in 2006.
Khabibulin had a lot to do with it, most notably when he made 19 saves in the first period and the Avalanche was buzzing after giving up a flukish goal to Chicago’s Kyle Calder 17 seconds into the game.
“He played really well,” Avalanche captain Joe Sakic said of Khabibulin, who helped lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2004. “He made some huge saves, especially in the first period, and kept them in it.”
It was the first loss for Colorado since a 5-2 defeat at San Jose on Dec. 30.
“Chalk it up, it’s a loss,” Sakic said, “but you’re not going to win 30 in a row, anyway.”
Said Laaksonen, who has two goals in the past three games after going nine games without scoring: “I hope this wakes us up and helps us put together another streak. That’s what we need. We have to learn that we have to be ready to play, and it doesn’t matter who it is. We know that they were struggling and we took them lightly, and we can’t do that. The race is so tight, we have to keep winning.”
Chicago’s quick goal came when Brett Clark’s pass to Karlis Skrastins went off a linesman, abruptly setting up a 3-on-1 Blackhawks’ rush that ended with Calder knocking a rebound past David Aebischer.
Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said the Avs “had a good response the rest of that period. We might have had out best first period all year.”
But when the Avalanche didn’t score on a 5-on-3 power play that lasted 93 seconds to end the first period and start the second, that seemed to halt any momentum.
“To me, that might have been the turning point of the whole game,” Quenneville said. “That was the opportunity right there to set the whole tone for the second period. I don’t know whether it was how we played it, or the entries were weak, but it basically got us out of sync.”
The Blackhawks took the lead for good on Jim Dowd’s deflection of a Matthew Barnaby shot early in the second period, and Chicago center Mikhail Yakubov’s first goal of the season – and the second of his career – made it 3-1. Laaksonen’s nifty blind, whirling backhander got the Avalanche within 3-2 at 9:37 of the second, but Calder’s second goal, at 17:12 of the period, gave the Blackhawks a two-goal edge.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
