Word: hasek
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Senior and three-year starter J.R. Prestifilippo (24 games played, 10-13-1, 3.56 GAA, .882 sv%) suffered a broken collarbone before the series and Jonas (12 GP, 4-3-1, 3.22 GAA) did his best impression of Dominik Hasek, leading his team to victory in Game One and nearly stole the rubber match before the ECAC's best offense got rolling in the third period...
...Hasek is also stubborn. In 1989, playing for Czech's army team, he refused to skate during a key game against his hometown's team. In Buffalo he's already legend enough that the Marine Midland Arena, where the Sabres skate, is flanked by two gargoyle goalies splayed apart in a way that only the double-jointed Hasek can manage. Still, he was booed at the beginning of last year because he schemed to dump the team's popular coach. Last May he sat in his Jeep making calls as 1,500 fans--many of them children...
Although not well known in the U.S. outside of hockey, he's a hero at home in the Czech Republic, where he sells his own Dominator line of sports clothing. Hasek is mentioned for President. And this isn't a country with Bill Clinton at the helm; they have Vaclav Havel...
...Hasek will be even bigger if the Sabres win the Stanley Cup, one trophy that has eluded him. In the playoffs, a hot goalie can carry a not-so-hot team, but it will be difficult for him to lift the Sabres, who finished the regular season with a 37-28-17 record. "I'm not a big believer that one guy can win a championship," says Wayne Gretzky, who would know, "but there's no question in my mind that he single-handedly won the gold medal for one country." Broadcaster John Davidson, a former All-Star goalie, says...
...while everyone looks to find the next Gretzky, the closest they are coming in this defense-plagued era of NHL hockey is Hasek. In fact, Gretzky's six-year-old son, who wants to be a goalie, imitates Hasek on the ice, flopping to his stomach and poking the puck away with his stick. But Hasek doesn't want his own son to play goal. "It's too much pressure," he says. "It's more fun to score the goals...