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During the 1990s, the Buffalo Sabres depended on the brilliance of goalie Dominik Hasek. During that time, his regular season ended on April 12 in 1994 and 1997 (while the team had one last game afterward). Despite his skills, in both of those games, Hasek allowed one goal too many by their opponent. Neither of those performances stopped him from attaining big accomplishments. In 1994, Hasek had the lowest goals against average in 20 years, took home his first Vezina Trophy, and shared his first William M. Jennings Trophy. Three years later, Hasek again won the Vezina and became the first goalie in over 30 years to win the Hart Memorial Trophy.

Meanwhile, Buffalo’s losses gave their opponents more than just victory to cheer about. In 1994, the New York Rangers set a franchise record for points on the 54th anniversary of their last Stanley Cup championship. Then in 1997, the Ottawa Senators made it to the playoffs for the first time in their five-year history. A team by that name had not been in the playoffs since 1930.

1994

To the 18,200 gathered at Madison Square Garden, the Sabres seemed to have the 1994 game well in hand. Dale Hawerchuk and Donald Audette scored late in the first period to give them a 2-0 lead. For the first two thirds of the game, Hasek held off the Rangers blocking all their 23 shots on goal. 

As New York’s Mark Messier explained, “We put an awful lot of pressure on him (Hasek) in the second period, and continued it in the third and finally did break through. The worst thing you can do, when you’re playing against a good goaltender, is try to make the perfect shot. We just wanted to throw lots of rubber on him, get in front of him and see what happens.”

Coming at Hasek hard, the Rangers sent 17 shots his way in the final period. Three of them got past him in under three minutes within the first five minutes of the third. Although the Sabres lost the game, Hasek finished with a higher save percentage (.925) than New York’s Mike Richter (.923).

Hasek ended the 1993-94 season with a record of 30-20-6 and a goals-against average of 1.95. That made him the first goalie in 20 years to drop below 2.00. The most recent was the 1973-74 season when Bernie Parent of the Philadelphia Flyers had an average of 1.87.

In the New York Daily News, Frank Brown wrote, “Hasek, a candidate for league MVP honors, smothers every loose puck he can reach – forcing faceoffs, causing pauses and destroying any semblance of flow.” Indeed, that season Hasek was voted as the NHL’s top goaltender as he and teammate Grant Fuhr had the fewest goals against. Hasek would receive the Vezina Trophy again the following year.

Going into the playoffs, his Sabres had been hoping to top the Montreal Canadiens in the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference. They missed by one point, finishing with 95 points. While they had made playoffs, they lost to the New Jersey Devils in the first round (4-3).

Meanwhile, the Rangers’ victory over the Sabres gave Richter his eighth straight win to end with a record 42-12-5. The two points they earned that night gave them a total of 111 points, which set a franchise record. Their previous high was 109 points, which they reached in back-to-back seasons (1970-71 and 1971-72). Having tied their final game, the Rangers finished the 1993-94 season with 112 points. (They have only beat that record once, when they totaled 113 point during the 2014-15 season.) After winning the Atlantic Division, during playoffs they beat the Devils in the conference finals, and defeated the Vancouver Canucks as they broke a 54-year drought to win the Stanley Cup.

1997

Three years later, Hasek played his final game of the season at the Corel Centre for a capacity crowd of 18,500. The home team Ottawa Senators were desperate to make playoffs and had pushed hard to win their last three games to overtake the Hartford Whalers. Meanwhile, Buffalo had already clinched and were about to enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed. This caused rumors that the NHL had forced the Sabres to play Hasek since playing his backup would essentially hand the playoff berth to the Senators. Both the NHL and the Sabres denied this, with the explanation that Buffalo already planned to have Steve Shields in the net for their final game.

For the game, “Hasek and [Ron] Tugnutt engaged in a battle of will through 55-plus minutes of playoff-atmosphere hockey,” reported the local press. “Both clubs launched effective counterattacks that kept Hasek and Tugnutt trading big saves,” 33 for Hasek and 17 for Tugnutt. Despite always claiming “I don’t get shutouts,” that night Tugnutt earned his third of the season and fifth of his NHL career. At the end, the Senators mobbed their goalie and did a victory lap. Tugnutt said, “This is as good as it gets.”

The only goal of the night was in Hasek’s net, although until that point “Hasek seemed impossible.” With only 4:01 remaining in the game, Ottawa’s first draft pick, Alexei Yashin, “broke up ice … fighting off an attempted trip” to pass to Steve Duchesne, who “snapped a shot low to the stick side.” According to the press, it was the “pass and shot that has become the signature of the 1996-97 Ottawa Senators.”

Hasek ended the 1996-97 season with a record of 37-20-10, a goals against average of 2.27, and a .930 save percentage. As Ken Warren wrote for the Ottawa Citizen, “Hasek isn’t any ordinary NHL goalie. He’s the major reason why the Sabres head into the playoffs as the second seed … He should become the first goaltender to win the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP since Jacques Plante did it for Montreal in 1962.” Warren was spot on as Hasek did win the Hart, and while he was at it, he also snagged the Lester B. Pearson Award (as the most outstanding NHL player). He duplicated his victories the following season, becoming the only goalie to win the Hart twice. Hasek’s 1997 awards also started a string of four consecutive Vezina Trophy wins.

With their victory, Ottawa secured a playoff berth for the first time since the NHL gave them another franchise in 1992. Having scored the game-winner, Duchesne said, “This is the best thing, obviously, to make the playoffs for the first time. I’m just glad to be one of the guys who helped.” They had improved from 41 points the prior season to end the 1996-97 season with 77 points. As Captain Randy Cunneyworth commented, “We did it dramatically, you have to admit that, but it feels just great.” Their coach, Jacques Martin, noted, “We didn’t know how good we could be.”

Coincidentally, the Senators would face the Sabres in the first round. While Ottawa had finished third in the Northeast Division, Buffalo had led with 92 points. In anticipation, Tugnutt predicted, “It’s going to be a barnburner, and a real tough series. Obviously, I think it’s going to be low-scoring. It’s going to be very tight, but it’s going to be fun.” Indeed, the series went the full seven games, and he played in all of them with a .917 save percentage. Hasek only minded the net for three, maintaining a .926 save percentage. The Sabres squeaked out the extra victory but lost to the Flyers (4-1) in the semi-finals. Ottawa would make playoffs every season through 2007-08 (for 11 seasons total). They came closest to the Stanley Cup when they lost the Final in 2007.

Hasek remained with the Sabres until 2001. His career best was the 1998-99 season, when he had a save percentage of .937 and a 1.87 goals-against average.

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