As far as the Blackhawks are concerned, Oleg Tverdovsky should have held out longer. Like until after Friday night.
The Phoenix defenseman, who didn’t join the Coyotes until Dec. 20 because of a contract dispute, recorded his first assist and goal of the season Friday night in a 4-2 victory that snapped the Hawks’ six-game unbeaten streak in front of a sellout United Center crowd of 22,393.
Tverdovsky’s goal 46 seconds into the third period was the game-winner. Rick Tocchet added a goal at 18:09 as Phoenix (20-18-9) improved to 7-1-1 in its last nine games against the Hawks.
Jimmy Waite, left unprotected by the Hawks in the waiver draft before the season and claimed by Phoenix, stopped 19 shots–including an Alex Zhamnov rocket off his face mask–to beat his ex-teammates.
“I’d be lying if I said it was just another win, but it’s not,” he said. “I’ve been here nine of the 10 years I’ve been a pro. Obviously, it’s a big win and I’m really happy to beat my old team and show them what I can do. I’m not sure they really know what I can do out there. I really never had a chance to show them at the NHL level.”
Leading 1-0 six minutes into the second period, the Hawks (15-19-9) had the chance to put the Coyotes in a deeper hole, but Eric Daze sent a bouncing puck wide of a wide-open net. “I should have stopped it,” he said of the rebound of a Chris Chelios slap shot. “But you want to shoot right away when you get an open net like that. It was one of the turning points.”
Jeremy Roenick, on an assist from Tverdovsky, matched Daze’s first-period power-play goal with his own at 11:07 of the second. Gary Suter put the Hawks back in front at 14:53, but Keith Tkachuk deflected Teppo Numminen’s slapper for a power-play goal at 17:50.
