Injured Hasek Is Out for the Season

Dominik Hasek’s season is over because of a groin injury. He’s determined not to let it end his career.

“I’ll be back next season,” Hasek said Tuesday.

The 39-year-old Hasek ended his retirement after one season to return to Detroit this season, but he played in only 14 games before Tuesday’s announcement. He was 8-3-2 for the Central Division-leading Red Wings.

Hasek said he doesn’t regret coming back.

“No, I never made a mistake,” he said. “Unfortunately my groin wasn’t strong enough.”

One of the NHL’s all-time great goaltenders, Hasek won two MVP awards and six Vezina Trophies, given to the league’s top goalie, during a nine-year stint in Buffalo.

He joined the Red Wings before the 2001-02 season, winning his first Stanley Cup that season.

Hasek skated with his teammates Tuesday, then made his surprising announcement.

“It’s very sad, but that’s the way it is,” he said. “I hoped for two months it would get better every day. But it didn’t get better, it got even worse last week.”

The Red Wings are left with the same goalies -- Curtis Joseph and Manny Legace -- they had last season. Detroit had one of the best records in the league last season, but lost to the Mighty Ducks in the first round of the playoffs.

“Curtis and Manny can concentrate on playing,” Red Wing captain Steve Yzerman said. “We have no distractions.”

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Colorado Avalanche defenseman Rob Blake broke his left leg and will be out indefinitely.

He had been playing in pain the last couple of weeks and tests Monday revealed the fracture.

“I’m a little surprised just because I was playing on it and getting some things done on it,” he said Tuesday before Colorado’s game against the New York Islanders. “It wasn’t getting any better. It was getting worse and worse, so it was time to get it looked at.”

Blake said he remembered getting hit with a shot in a game against Pittsburgh on Jan. 24 and “there’s been a couple since then.”

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Phoenix Coyote forward Tyson Nash was suspended for two games without pay for slashing San Jose’s Alexander Korolyuk during a game last week. Nash received a major penalty and game misconduct for slashing Korolyuk early in the third period of San Jose’s 5-0 win on Thursday.... The New Jersey Devils signed an agreement to move to a new arena in Newark by 2007, following basketball’s New Jersey Nets out of the Meadowlands. The agreement calls for Newark to build a $300-million, 18,000-seat downtown arena for the Devils, who won their third Stanley Cup championship in nine years last season.