• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Havlat carries Blackhawks past Coyotes

Oct 16, 2008 - 4:42 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Martin Havlat scored a goal and set up star defenseman Brian Campbell's first tally of the season as the Chicago Blackhawks cruised to a 4-1 victory over the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday.

Patrick Sharp also tallied and rookie Colin Fraser netted his first career goal. Nikolai Khabibulin stopped 29 shots while defenseman Duncan Keith and Kris Versteeg each recorded a pair of assists for the Blackhawks, who notched their first win of the season.

Havlat, who missed 47 games last season with a shoulder injury that required surgery, netted a highlight-reel goal midway through the second period that gave Chicago the energy it had been missing the first three games.

"I just tried to beat a guy 1-on-1 and was successful there," Havlat said. "After I beat the first guy, all I had to do was beat the goalie and put it in. It was time to get a win."

Sharp's tally with 57.8 seconds left in the middle session snapped the 1-1 tie, putting Chicago ahead for good.

Sharp's second goal of the season was set up by Keith, who also assisted on Havlat's game-tying tally with 8:25 left in the second. Keith fired a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that deflected to Sharp, who sent a backhander under the glove of diving goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov.

Fraser made it a two-goal lead when he took a pass from Dave Bolland in the slot and beat Bryzgalov with a wrist shot for a power-play tally just 65 seconds into the third.

"I had lots of room and (Bolland) gave me a nice pass," Fraser said. "I was pretty sure (Bryzgalov) was a butterfly goalie, so I wanted to shoot high. So I closed my eyes and shot it."

Campbell, who signed an eight-year, $56.7 million deal in the offseason, made it 4-1 with 7:56 remaining, when he took a feed from Havlat on a 3-on-2 rush and sent a wrister into the left side of the net.

"It's a good goal to get and nice to be able to help out," Campbell said. "The chances have been there for me to either help out or get some shots, so the signs are positive going forward."

Mueller's first-period power-play goal opened the scoring, but Chicago got the equalizer in the second on a terrific individual effort by Havlat. The Czech took the puck near center ice, stickhandled past a defender and went around a crowd in front before flipping a backhander into the top right corner of the net.

"Marty's goal was just incredible, you don't see many like that one," Keith said. "Tonight, I was trying to move the puck up to our forwards as quick as I could, and it worked out."

Both goaltenders were solid in a scoreless opening period. Bryzgalov made 11 saves, while Khabibulin stopped six shots.

"(Khabibulin) has always been a great goalie," Blackhawks coach Denis Savard said. "He is a champion and his play speaks for itself."

Mueller put Phoenix up, 1-0, just 4 1/2 minutes into the second. Rookie Kyle Turris fired a slap shot from the right circle that was stopped by Khabibulin, but Mueller was there on the left side to tap in the rebound.

"We had a great first period," Mueller said. "Then we started to sit back a little and things didn't work out like we hoped. Give Chicago credit, they came out harder in the second and third periods."

Bryzgalov stopped 26 shots overall for Phoenix, which went 1-for-8 with the man advantage. Meanwhile, Chicago was scoreless on six power-play opportunities.

"Chicago played with a lot of energy tonight," Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky said. "They are better than their record indicates. Our first two wins were team wins. Tonight, we had a team loss."