Colorado’s Patrick Roy has won more games than any goaltender in NHL history. But the Blackhawks and their seldom-used backup goaltender Steve Passmore got the best of him Saturday night.
After letting in goals by Dan Hinote and Joe Sakic in the first 10 minutes, Passmore shut out the defending Stanley Cup champions the rest of the way and the Hawks rallied for a 3-2 victory.
“I hate using cliches, but that was a character win,” said Passmore, who made 21 saves to Roy’s 18.
Kyle Calder jammed a point-blank shot past Roy midway through the second period to break a 2-2 tie.
Steve Sullivan tied the score with a clever close-in move earlier in the second period and Tony Amonte’s first-period goal launched the comeback.
“Chicago played well and worked hard,” Roy said. “I wish I could have made a difference. I thought I was soft at the beginning of the game. I tried to come back strong, but it was too late.”
Hawks coach Brian Sutter said he used Passmore in goal because this was the Hawks’ third game in four nights.
“It was a difficult game for him to play in,” Sutter said. “He hadn’t played in 12 games. He was a little rattled after that second goal. All I said was, `Stay focused, stay focused.’
“This shows we can beat the top teams.”
It was only the sixth start of the season for Passmore. The Hawks’ Jocelyn Thibault, the NHL’s busiest goalie, got a rare night off. Thibault began his career with the Colorado franchise when it was in Quebec and moved with it to Denver but was traded to Montreal on Dec. 6, 1995, along with Andre Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky, in return for Roy and Mike Kane.
On Nov. 16, 1998, Thibault was traded again. This time he accompanied Dave Manson and Jeff Brown to Chicago in return for Jeff Hackett, Eric Weinrich and Alain Nasreddine.
Roy was already one of the top goaltenders in the game when he was traded to Colorado. Thibault, on the other hand, was considered a potential star, not only when he was traded to the Canadiens but also when they dealt him to the Hawks.
“Before I came to Chicago, I always played for a pretty good team and my progression was going well,” Thibault said. “But playing for a good team sometimes hides the mistakes you make.
“I came and the team was struggling. I had to be on top of my game every night to win games, and my mistakes were magnified because they would cost us games.
“I came into this league when I was 18 and I never really had a chance to be with a veteran goalie to learn about the game and preparation. It slowed my progress. Lots of stuff I had to learn by myself to get where I wanted to be.”
Thibault’s journey is still a work in progress, but this season he seems to have made considerable headway. He had a setback Friday night when he suffered a 4-2 loss in San Jose. Still, he leads the league in games played with 53, and his 29 victories are second only to Detroit superstar Dominik Hasek’s 30.
Thibault’s goals-against average of 2.50 and his save percentage of .901 also suggest that he’s en route to a career year.
“Jocelyn is capable of making the great save once in a while,” Sutter said. “That’s a good goaltender’s responsibility–that and making the normal saves all the time.
“Jocelyn has been playing his best hockey in a tough schedule. It’s going to be like that in the playoffs–the key is to stay focused.”
Drought ends: When center Igor Korolev scored the Hawks’ second goal early in the third period of Friday’s 4-2 loss in San Jose, it was his first goal in 20 games and his first point in 14 games.
Another Olympian? Sutter would like to see Hawks defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev added to the Russian Olympic team as the replacement for Toronto’s Dmitry Yushkevich, who has a blood clot in his leg.
“If Potsy is considered that’s quite a compliment to the way our team has played,” Sutter said.
