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Havlat stars as Blackhawks come back to defeat Flames

Feb 7, 2007 - 7:12 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Martin Havlat has been one of the few bright spots for the Chicago Blackhawks this season.

Havlat scored twice late in the third period and tallied in the shootout as the Blackhawks rallied late for a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames.

Havlat, who leads the Blackhawks with 19 goals and 38 points, has scored in three straight games.

"It's tough to win in this league," Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "It's such a fine line. We've lost a lot of tough games the last month, three weeks. We've got to hope it's going to turn the other way fast."

"It is always disappointing to lose, especially when you're up 2-0," Calgary left wing Kristian Huselius said. "We found ourselves in penalty trouble, and they capitalized on it."

After Havlat whistled a shot over goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff's glove in the first round of the shootout, Chicago goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin denied Huselius to open the second round.

"I thought I had him (Khabibulin) beat," Huselius said. "I kind of stopped a little bit in front of the net, slowly slide to my stick, but I couldn't really hit the net. I lost my angle a little bit. If I were to hit the net, it would have gone in."

Chicago's Jeff Hamilton clinched the win when he backhanded the puck past Kiprusoff.

The Blackhawks trailed, 2-0, late in the third period before Havlat went to work.

Havlat sliced the lead to 2-1 on the power play when his slap shot from the blue line sailed past a screened Kiprusoff with 2:43 left.

The right wing tied the game with only 28 seconds left, gathering in Karl Stewart's rebound at the left faceoff dot and blasting a shot past Kiprusoff.

"The power play was the difference for us tonight," Havlat said. "We didn't get the start we wanted. We weren't playing the way we wanted to. It took us 65 minutes plus the shootout. I think everybody was working hard. We never quit."

Calgary took a 1-0 lead at 15:57 of the second period when Jeff Friesen's shot from a sharp angle went over Khabibulin's shoulder.

The Flames increased their lead to 2-0 at 4:08 of the third period on the power play when Huselius beat Khabibulin between the pads from the right faceoff circle.

Huselius increased his points streak to 13 games, in which he has nine goals and 10 assists. He has goals in three consecutive contests and four in his last five games.