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Havlat helps Blackhawks clip Blue Jackets

Dec 15, 2008 - 3:41 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Chicago Blackhawks continued to make the United Center quite an obstacle for visiting opponents.

Martin Havlat snapped a tie midway through the third period and the Blackhawks matched their season-best four-game winning streak with a 3-1 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

Patrick Sharp added a power-play tally, defenseman Brent Seabrook had an empty-netter with 22 seconds left in the third and Cristobal Huet finished with 31 saves, improving to 6-1-1 in eight home starts this season and 3-1-0 all-time against the Blue Jackets.

"We won this game because people are buying into the team concept, and we did that the second half of the game and we got two points," Sharp said.

Blue-liner Duncan Keith had two assists for Chicago, which won its fourth straight at the United Center and extended its stellar home record to 10-1-4 overall.

Fredrik Modin netted his seventh goal of the season for Columbus, which saw its two-game winning streak come to an end.

"We only scored one goal and as a result we lost a hockey game," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We have to believe that people will start to step up and that we start to get the goal that gives us a spread. Right now, we have no breathing room in games."

Havlat gave Chicago a lead it would not relinquish with a hard wrister from the left faceoff circle 9:36 into the third. Havlat took possession of a loose puck at the blue line and skated in with Keith, who exchanged two give-and-go passes before his teammate blasted the puck past rookie netminder Steve Mason.

"It was a nice give-and-go with Duncan Keith, he made a nice pass and we got the goal," Havlat said. "We didn't do things very well early and we talked about it in the locker room and then we turned it around."

An eight-year veteran, Havlat has collected seven goals in 16 games against Columbus.

Modin opened the scoring 95 seconds into the first, firing a wrister past Huet from the right circle. Derick Brassard picked up an assist on the play, and leads all rookies with 24 points.

Columbus, however, eventually fell to 11-6-0 when registering the opening tally.

Sharp pulled the Blackhawks even by tapping the puck in while sitting on the doorstep with one second remaining in the following session on the power play.

"Definitely frustrating to do that, with only a second left," Mason said. "It had been a big kill up to that point. The puck hit me in the glove and just bounced in. Give Chicago credit for not giving up on the play. It's just too bad because I thought we dominated the play for most of the game."

Leading the team in scoring with 17 goals, Sharp has 10 tallies and 17 points in 25 career games against Columbus.

"I knew the clock was running out, so I just tried to bank it in and I got lucky," Sharp said.

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville later praised Sharp for his effort.

"What a presence of mind by Patrick Sharp to make the play he did," Quenneville said. "We were all yelling 'shoot' from the bench, but I am not sure he could hear us. That turned into a big goal."

After Havlat provided a one-goal cushion, Seabrook later notched his fourth goal of the season when Hitchcock pulled Mason.

Starting his third consecutive contest, the 20-year-old Mason made 28 saves.