THE NHL / HELENE ELLIOTT : Sabres’ Hasek Says All He Needed Was Chance

Even Dominik Hasek looks twice at the league-leading 1.93 goals-against average and .931 save percentage listed next to his name.

“I still can’t believe it,” said Hasek, the Czech goalie who is carrying the Buffalo Sabres through an injury-filled season. “Before the season, I thought about playing maybe 30 games, because we had Grant Fuhr on the team. I never expected this.”

He never expected Fuhr to need knee surgery, and he never expected he might become the first NHL goalie in 20 years to compile a goals-against average of less than 2. That he’s European makes his success more unlikely, because no goalie trained outside of North America has compiled the league’s lowest average.

The slender Hasek doesn’t seem to block much of the net. But his flexibility gives him remarkable reach and his agility is ideal for a butterfly style because he gets up quickly after going to his knees to make a save. In 49 games, he has been as close to unbeatable as anyone since the Flyers’ Bernie Parent had a 1.89 goals-against average in 1973-74.

“To rise to the level of elite goalies takes time and dedication and working hard, and Dominik did that,” Sabre Coach John Muckler said. “We felt he could play, but we didn’t know he’d come this far. He’s been sensational this year. I don’t know what we would have done without him.”

Hasek, 29, was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 1983, but wasn’t allowed to leave Czechoslovakia until 1990. Despite making the International Hockey League all-star team in 1991, he couldn’t beat out Blackhawk incumbent Ed Belfour, and was sent to Buffalo in 1992 for goalie Stephane Beauregard.

“When I came to Chicago, the coaches didn’t believe (in) me too much,” he said. “The coaches didn’t give me a chance. This year, I’m getting more chances to play. It has taken me a couple of years to do this.”

Although most European goalies are baffled by the number and angles of shots in the NHL, Hasek has adjusted well.

“I only had to learn how to . . . handle the puck,” he said. “In Europe, coaches don’t like goalies to handle the puck. They want you to just give it to the defense.”

The Sabres are promoting Hasek for most valuable player, and he’s a good pick.

“That should be wonderful, but this is my first season (starting), and it would be very difficult,” Hasek said. “I just think about the Sabres making the playoffs. Then I just think about the first round and the next game after that.”

STRAIGHT AND NARROW

Bryan Fogarty had it all. A tall, mobile defenseman who was sure-handed at both ends of the ice, he was Canada’s top junior player in 1989 and was chosen ninth overall, by Quebec, in the 1987 draft.

He nearly lost it all to alcohol abuse, which led the Nordiques to suspend him repeatedly before finally discarding him. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lighting also washed their hands of him.

Still only 24, Fogarty got another chance--perhaps his last--when the Montreal Canadiens signed him as a free agent Feb. 25. So far, they say, so good.

“Maybe we can call it a gamble, but we did our homework and he has not had a problem since the middle of May last year,” Coach Jacques Demers said. “We talked to people who coached him recently (in the International Hockey League), and they said he straightened out. He has done all we’ve asked, hockey-wise, and off the ice, he has been excellent.”

Fogarty said he is not in a treatment program and credits his wife for his turnaround, his sobriety dating to his marriage.

“She deserved it. I love her very much,” he said. “I’m going to work hard at it.

SHARK HUNT

One season, they are playing Montreal for the Stanley Cup. The next, the Kings must sweep a home-and-home series from the San Jose Sharks this weekend to sustain their playoff hopes.

“It’s do or die for us, it’s as simple as that,” Wayne Gretzky said.

But Marty McSorley thinks taking that approach will add more stress to an already tense team. His impression, when he was reacquired from Pittsburgh, was of “a lot of nervousness, a lot of pressure” among his teammates.

“There are 16 games left,” he said. “That’s 32 points. That’s a lot of points. By saying we have to win those games, we’re putting ourselves right behind the eight ball. . . . If you’ve got a bit of a snowball growing, it’s tough to turn it around. You’ve got to do the extra things to turn it around and get everybody back in the mind-set of believing how capable this team is.”

Are the Kings capable of passing San Jose? Probably not. It’s too late to make up for a season’s worth of being too lazy to hold up opposing wingers or limit shots on their goalies. Even if the Kings win 10 of their last 16, the Sharks can hold on by winning only six of 15.

AM I BLUE?

Petr Nedved was the big winner Monday, when arbitrator George Nicolau ruled that the St. Louis Blues must give the Canucks center Craig Janney and a second-round draft pick as compensation for signing Nedved as a free agent.

Nedved got $4 million for three years, $1 million more than Vancouver had offered, and he got to choose where he plays. Janney becomes the victim of Nedved’s holdout and of the NHL’s not-so-free agency. There is talk he might not report--and if he does, the Canucks have questions about the strained knee that has kept him out of the last eight games.

The Blues get a player who is younger--Nedved is 22, Janney 26--and has greater potential than Janney, an exceptional playmaker but average scorer. By including the pick, they made a reasonable offer and avoided losing 50-goal scorer Brendan Shanahan, whom Vancouver had wanted. Verdict: Blues win big.

SLAP SHOTS

Hartford General Manager Paul Holmgren says he gained grit and speed in his trades with Calgary and Chicago. He also cut his $13-million payroll by about $1.2 million by sending James Patrick, Zarley Zalapski and Mikael Nylander to Calgary for Gary Suter, and sending Suter and Randy Cunneyworth to Chicago. He ends up with Paul Ranheim, Ted Drury, Frank Kucera and Jocelyn Lemieux. Calgary will have a potent power play with Zalapski, Patrick and Al MacInnis.

Nothing stops Boston right wing Cam Neely. He overcame knee problems and scored his 50th goal last week, then last Saturday lost the tip of his right pinky when it was slashed off by the New Jersey Devils’ Tommy Albelin. It was sewn back on and he returned by the end of the period to set up Boston’s only goal.