The fans at the Gaylord Entertainment Center kept chanting derisively and Steve Passmore kept stopping most everything in sight. Still, they didn’t learn.
Passmore swallows such taunting whole, much like he swallowed all but one Nashville shot Friday night in the Blackhawks’ 3-1 victory. Passmore recorded 17 saves at a time when the Hawks needed a victory as badly as the home crowd needed to wise up.
“The way I see it,” said Passmore, who owns two of the Hawks’ three victories, “they shut up if you’re off your game.”
Passmore, as loose as they come, eats up pressure and is clearly on his game. So is Eric Daze, who scored twice to give him six goals in 10 games.
Bryan Muir added an empty-netter to finish the offense. Passmore, who allowed only Tom Fitzgerald’s goal midway through the third period, and the Hawks’ penalty-killers did the rest.
Both got quite the workout in the second period, snuffing four consecutive Nashville power plays, including two that were separated by just six seconds. The Hawks have now killed 20 straight penalties.
“I can’t remember when the last goal was scored on our penalty-killers,” coach Lorne Molleken said.
That’s because it came seven games ago.
The Hawks got a boost from Daze, who scored with the man advantage, sneaking a shot past Mike Dunham at 2:46 of the first while being checked in the slot by Bob Boughner.
Daze also scored at 5:52 of the third, backhanding in a rebound of a Jean-Pierre Dumont shot.
“The big guy was skating,” Molleken said.
And Passmore was robbing both Greg Johnson and Randy Robitaille on the Predators’ fourth power play.
“This,” he said, “is fun.”
