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Kariya, Predators score twice in last period to edge Blachawks

Dec 21, 2006 - 6:48 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Nikolai Khabibulin was minutes away from his first shutout with the Chicago Blackhawks. But Paul Kariya and the Nashville Predators had other ideas.

Kariya scored twice in the third period as the Predators rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Blackhawks.

Defenseman Kimmo Timonen had two assists and Chris Mason made 28 saves for Nashville, which has won five straight games.

Khabibulin, who signed a four-year, $27 million contract with the Blackhawks prior to last season, entered Wednesday's contest with no shutouts in 69 starts with the club.

The Russian netminder owned a 1-0 lead with 13:19 remaining when Kariya took a pass from David Legwand and broke away from a defender. Kariya blasted a shot from the left faceoff that hit the bottom of Khabibulin's glove and trickled over the goal line to tie the contest.

"David made a nice pass to me and my shot just hit off Khabibulin's glove before it went in," Kariya said.

Kariya tallied again with a man advantage, when he gathered the puck along the boards, turned and fired through traffic past a screened-off Khabibulin to give the Predators a 2-1 lead with just over seven minutes left.

"Khabibulin was screened," Kariya said. "I saw the puck all the way after I shot it and it went in blocker side."

"We were shorthanded and had two chances to clear the zone and we didn't," Blackhawks coach Denis Savard said. "So that goal was a tough one to swallow."

Mason made it stand up, stopping all 12 shots he faced in the final session for Nashville, which snapped a three-game losing streak against Chicago.

"Finally a win, we have a tough time against them," Mason said. "We played them early in the season when everyone was healthy, then we got them right after their coaching change. Tonight we were just fortunate to get some late goals and hang on."

"The Blackhawks have been tough on us and they are playing great," Kariya added. "Their defense is very mobile and Khabibulin has been great in goal. They are a tough opponent to beat."

Martin Havlat scored his team-leading 12th goal in the first period and Khabibulin made 18 saves for the Blackhawks, who were 0-for-7 on the power play.

"We played pretty well early," Khabibulin said. "In the third period we just gave the game away. You just cannot do that in your own building."

"I don't know if we gave the game away," Savard said. "But we had a lot of chances to put them two goals down and didn't do that. We had chances on our power play and didn't shoot when we should have."