Chicago Won’t Lose Them All After All

Pass, pass, pass, shot, score. And just like that, the Blackhawks’ Steve Dubinsky said, “the weight of the whole city of Chicago was off our shoulders.”

Losers of their first seven games this season and unable to score in the last two, the Blackhawks got a textbook goal from Sergei Krivokrasov in the first period Sunday and went on to beat the troubled Buffalo Sabres, 5-2.

“After the goal . . . if you saw everybody’s eyes, you could see that everybody was ready to go,” Krivokrasov said. “It’s a good feeling to get the team going on the right track.”

The Blackhawks played by far their best game this season, outshooting the Sabres, 47-17, and coming within a goal of matching their output for the first seven games combined.

After allowing Jason Dawe’s goal only 37 seconds into the game, Krivokrasov responded at 4:54. He started the play by feeding Tony Amonte in Buffalo ice and went to the net. Amonte passed to Alexei Zhamnov, who quickly found Krivokrasov alone in front of goalie Dominik Hasek.

The play resulted in Chicago’s first goal in 184 minutes and 26 seconds. Eric Weinrich put the team ahead to stay late in the period, and Eric Daze and Dubinsky added second-period scores. And the Blackhawks even got a power-play goal--Alexei Zhamnov’s deflection past backup goalie Steve Shields--to break an 0-for-41 drought with the man advantage.

“It’s pretty hard to swallow every day, looking in the paper and seeing a zero in the win column,” Weinrich said. “This team has a lot of pride. It was killing guys. Krivo’s goal was huge for us. We took over the game after that.”

While the Blackhawks finally got a victory, the Sabres’ slump continued. Buffalo is 1-5-2 since opening the season with a 3-1 victory at St. Louis.

Hasek, the NHL’s top goalie and MVP last season, has had an especially tough time. He has been getting booed at home for his role in the departure of popular coach Ted Nolan, and his goals-against average is 3.32--up more than a goal from 1996-97.

“I don’t think I played bad but I didn’t make any big saves,” Hasek said. “I expect more of myself.”

Said coach Lindy Ruff: “I thought Dominik was fighting the puck. There were rebounds three or four feet out in the crease. If Dominik is sharp, they don’t get those rebound chances.”

Hasek has gotten little defensive support. Montreal had 42 shots in beating Buffalo, 5-1, Friday night, and Hasek faced 35 shots in two periods Sunday before Ruff mercifully pulled him.

“We work hard in practice,” Hasek said. “It’s just that we don’t know what to do when we come to the games.”

Blackhawks goalie Chris Terreri got plenty of help. At 9:30 of the second period, Terreri was out of position for Wayne Primeau’s shot but defenseman Chris Chelios made the stick save. Just 27 seconds later, Daze split two defenders and beat Hasek for a 3-1 lead--and the Blackhawks were able to get a victory before the NFL Bears, who are 0-7.

“We’re still in a big hole. Let’s make sure that we’re not getting too carried away,” Chicago coach Craig Hartsburg said. “But the grind mentally we’ve gone through here, we needed something to feel good about.”

Then he smiled and said: “Let’s go, Bears.”

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Islanders/ Mighty Ducks

Anaheim tries to win its second game in a row behind goalie Guy Hebert.