Capitals Tie Up the Blackhawks

Washington Capitals goalie Jim Hrivnak is not one for surprises, but when Don Beaupre injured a groin muscle in his right leg in the warm-up session, Hrivnak’s number was called and he played well in helping the Capitals tie the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-2, Saturday in front of 15,028 at Capital Centre.

Beaupre said he probably will not skate for 10 days because of the injury. Hrivnak had about 10 minutes to get ready, but he shook off some early stiffness and helped the Capitals extend their unbeaten streak at home to nine games (7-0-2). With Beaupre playing fairly well and the team doing likewise, Hrivnak had not seen action in the team’s last two games after he was pulled from a 5-5 tie with Philadelphia on Dec. 26.

“Obviously, after a bad performance you want to get out and play again,” said Hrivnak (10-4-2), who had lost the start before the Flyers game as well. “You think about it all the time.”

For at least a few hours, the tie pushed the second-place Capitals (21-16-4) four points ahead of the third-place New York Rangers in the Patrick Division race; the Rangers played Saturday night in Pittsburgh.

Kelly Miller and Dimitri Khristich scored on Chicago goalie Ed Belfour, while Hrivnak allowed goals to Michel Goulet and Dirk Graham.

Groin pulls are common injuries for goalies and Beaupre has not been exempt. This time he was playing a rebound in the warmup when the pull occurred. He left the ice, iced the injury but could not play, though he did dress as the backup.

“It’s not real bad but it’s a little sore,” said Beaupre. “It’ll probably be 10 days. I’m not going to skate for probably a week.”

Beaupre was in the net for the 501st game of his career Friday afternoon when the Capitals beat New Jersey, 9-2. He would have played yesterday and was hoping to push his own record (11-12-2) to the .500 level.

“The start of the season was frustrating and then I get things going and then this comes along,” said Beaupre, who has been 9-2-1 in the last 12 appearances after starting 2-10-1. “But it will be a minor setback. I’ll get healed and pick up where I left off.”

The Capitals don’t play again until Thursday, when they visit Philadelphia. Olie Kolzig was called up from the minors to take Beaupre’s spot. But the odd thing is that Kolzig was playing Saturday for the Buffalo Sabres’ AHL team, the Rochester Americans, against the Baltimore Skipjacks, the Capitals’ AHL team. Kolzig was the fifth goalie on the Capitals’ depth chart, behind Byron Dafoe and Duane Derksen. But Derksen struggled and is now playing for Hampton Roads of the ECHL. Dafoe sprained his ankle and has just recently resumed skating. Mike Parson, who is on loan from Boston, was playing for the Skipjacks.

Chicago (22-14-5), which had a three-point lead in the Norris Division at the start of the day, was 7-3 in its previous 10 games. They are not fancy. They simply forecheck all day, and knowing the Capitals were playing their second game in less than 24 hours, they were hoping fatigue would set in.

“They had an easy game,” said Chicago’s Jocelyn Lemieux. “They are also human and might expect the same thing to happen. We knew that and wanted to put everything into our forechecking.”

The Capitals insisted they recognized that it would be a tight-checking day, but frequently tried -- and failed -- to use their finesse when grinding in the corners was the order of the day, particularly against a Chicago defense that was missing several regulars because of injury (Steve Smith, Keith Brown, Igor Kravchuk). They also passed up too many perimeter shots.

One who didn’t was Miller, who beat Belfour from the top of the circled for a 1-0 lead with just 2:06 gone. The lead lasted until Brent Sutter stripped Bobby Carpenter of the puck at the Capitals blueline and fed Goulet on a two-on-one break for a goal 79 seconds before the first intermission.

The next Chicago goal was similar. Kevin Hatcher got caught in deep, and at the other end, Christian Ruuttu fed Graham on the break for a 2-1 lead with 6:33 left in the second. Referee Paul Stewart is known for preferring rough and tumble games, and there were just nine power plays between the teams. On one, Khristich scored off a Pivonka feed for a 2-2 tie with 4:37 left in the second period. While the Capitals had just five shots in the third period and in overtime combined, Chicago had 15. None was better than Chris Chelios’s bid with three seconds remaining in regulation, but Hrivnak made that stop too. With Beaupre out, Hrivnak will need to make a few more, though he hopes without any more surprises.