Blackhawks go to shootout, fall to Red Wings
Once upon a time, the Blackhawks and the Red Wings played at least eight times during the regular season, plus the playoffs.
Now, with realignment and Detroit in the Eastern Conference, two games a year and two meaningless preseason games will have to do.
The teams met Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena for the first time since their memorable Western Conference semifinal series last spring that the Hawks won in seven games after trailing 3-1.
This time they needed a six-round shootout to decide things, with the Red Wings winning 5-4 on a goal by Darren Helm.
Three times the Hawks had a chance to win, but Patrick Kane, Marian Hossa and Marcus Kruger all were stopped by Detroit goalie Jonas Gustavsson.
Kruger intercepted a pass from Brendan Smith early in the third period and scored to make it 4-4 to send the game to overtime.
The Red Wings are trying to sneak into a playoff spot in the East, while the Hawks are fighting for first place in the West.
“I don’t think we’re holding up our end of the bargain,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock told reporters before the game. “Rivalry is when two teams really get after one another. I thought we did last year in the playoffs.
“We haven’t been a good enough team this year to consider this a rivalry-type game, but in the past we know what that is and we’ve had a good run with them.”
It was 2-2 after the first period thanks to Corey Crawford.
The Hawks took a 2-0 lead on goals by Hossa and Andrew Shaw, but Detroit tied it on goals by Tomas Tatar and Patrick Eaves. Eaves beat Crawford with a shot under the crossbar, and Tatar scored on a shot that went in off the stick of Johnny Oduya.
Patrick Sharp’s power-play goal at 5:03 of the second period, a rocket past Gustavsson, put the Hawks back ahead. It was Sharp’s eighth power-play goal of the season.
The lead didn’t last long, however, as Kyle Quincey tied it. Gustav Nyquist gave the Red Wings their first lead 4-3 on a pretty feed from Henrik Zetterberg before the second period ended.
Detroit’s Babcock will coach Team Canada in the Sochi Olympics. He saw Jonathan Toews on Wednesday for the first time since naming him an alternate captain to assist team captain Sidney Crosby.
“I never gave it to him; he earned the right to be a captain with Canada,” Babcock said. “He’s won two Cups. He’s won an Olympic gold. He’s won a World Juniors. I don’t know what else he’s won; he might have won more than that.
“He’s a pro. He does it every day. He’s a 200-footer. To me, he’s an impressive, impressive man. He’s a guy, when we were talking about it, Sydney Crosby wanted to make sure it was OK with him because of the fact that he’s won a couple Cups.
“He’s held in high regard to say the least amongst coaches, amongst management, amongst players, and he’s a huge reason (the Hawks) win.”
Toews appreciated the kind words from Babcock and the fact Crosby wanted to make sure it was OK with Toews that he be the captain.
“It means a lot,” Toews said. “I think (Crosby) said that to be polite. I think everyone knows that Sidney was the guy. I’m just honored to first of all be in the conversations for the captaincy or assistant captain.”
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