• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Khabibulin records first shutout with Blackhawks

Mar 7, 2007 - 5:55 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin delivered one of the top performances of a dismal season for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Khabibulin made 26 saves and Patrick Sharp scored twice to lead the Blackhawks to a 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings.

Coming off Sunday's shootout triumph over the Ottawa Senators, Chicago raised its record over Los Angeles to 2-5-1 in their last eight meetings and won for just the third time in 11 games overall.

Khabibulin stopped 11 shots in the first period, only three in the second and 12 in the third to record his first shutout of the season - his first in 99 contests with the Blackhawks - and 36th of his career.

"I knew it would happen one of these nights, sooner or later," Khabibulin said. "It just took longer than I anticipated it would. Now that it is over with, maybe I will get a few more."

"Great for Khabibulin, his first shutout as a Blackhawk," Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "Hopefully, there will be many more and I am glad we got the two points. It wasn't our best game but (he) was solid for us."

After leading the Tampa Bay Lightning to the 2004 Stanley Cup title, Khabibulin was just 17-26-6 last season while dealing with groin and knee injuries. The shutout raised his record this season to 21-20-5.

"The guys are so happy for (Khabibulin) that he can get the monkey off his back," Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook said. "Hopefully, he will get more of them before the season ends."

"He played good," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "Give him credit, but I don't think we tested him really well. He got the shutout, but it's not like that was a game (that) will send to the Hall of Fame."

After Sharp gave Chicago a 2-0 lead at 1:38 of the second period, he completed his first multi-goal game of the season with just nine seconds remaining in the session on a power play by beating netminder Sean Burke to the glove side.

"It was nice to get a power-play goal," Sharp said. "It has been so long since I have had one. Denis has been giving me more time on the power play and it is nice to reward him for his faith in me."

"That was a busted play," Burke said of Sharp's first tally. "The puck just came across the crease and finds their guy's stick. It was a bad bounce, but whatever you call it, we have to be professional and overcome that and we didn't do that tonight."

Rene Bourque needed just 22 seconds to open the scoring for the Blackhawks, when his shot from the left faceoff circle beat Burke inside the left goalpost for his fifth tally of the season.

"That was a bad one on my part," Burke said. "To start a game like that, when a guy comes in and I see the puck, I just didn't make a save."

Burke registered 18 saves and slipped to 6-5-2 for the Kings, who opened a four-game road trip with their 22nd loss in 31 contests away from home.

"We didn't make them work for their goals," Crawford said. "When you give up goals like that in this league, you are not going to win games. It is mistakes like that, that have us where we are in the standings this year. This was a game of two teams at the bottom of the conference battling for a position and I was disappointed in how our battle level was."