In a career bursting with high points and brilliant flashes of leather — often after a dropped stick and/or a desperation dive — selecting just five of Hockey Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek’s greatest moments is a tricky task.
One could easily make the case for this save or those saves to be included, but here are five undeniable moments from hockey’s Human Highlight Reel.
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5. Road-hockey robbery of Domi, Malhotra and Klatt
“He was one of the great road hockey goalies in the history of the game,” Theo Fleury told us recently. “And he never quit on any puck, any save.”
Hasek’s refusal to quit resulted in gems against Toronto’s Tie Domi, New York’s Manny Malhotra (set up by Fleury) and this beauty on Philadelphia’s Trent Klatt, called by Buffalo’s understated Rick Jeanneret:
4. Record-breaking, 70-save shutout
March 27, 1994. In Game 6 of the Buffalo Sabres’ playoff series against a superior New Jersey Devils club, Hasek made an incredible 70 saves to preserve a quadruple-overtime shutout. The goalie on the losing end of that marathon? Another all-time great, Martin Brodeur.
“Dominik Hasek, at one point in his career it was him winning the Vezina and me being the runner-up for like four years in a row,” Brodeur told us this summer. “We have a great relationship, he’s a great goalie, and now he’s a Hall of Famer.”
3. 2002’s record-smashing championship run
During the Detroit Red Wings’ rampage to the 2002 Stanley Cup, Hasek set franchise playoff records for most games played, minutes played, wins and shutouts (six, a new NHL record at the time). He backstopped the Wings past the Vancouver Canucks, St. Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes to hoist his first Cup.
2. Scorpion save on Adam Graves
One of the greatest singular stops of Hasek’s career was the scorpion save on New York’s Adam Graves. Flat on his stomach with seemingly no chance of stopping any raised puck, Hasek flicks his right leg behind him to make an improbable stop with the unpadded part of his leg. Oh, the flexibility:
1.’98 Olympic dominance
Team Canada just couldn’t score on him. But neither could anyone else. There is no way the Czechs win their first and only men’s hockey gold medal were it not for the heroics of Hasek on the world stage. The goaltender posted a silly .961 save percentage in Nagano, highlighted by his ice-cold stoning of Canada in the semifinal shootout:
