Facing Red Wings always special for Blackhawks

Sure, the Blackhawks' 2-1 overtime victory Tuesday night at the United Center wasn't exactly a thing of beauty.

Preseason games rarely are.

But whenever you put the Hawks and the Red Wings on the same sheet of ice it means a little something extra, exhibition opener or not.

"I think so," Hawks defenseman Duncan Keith said minutes after assisting on Jonathan Toews game-winner at 3:01 of OT. "Detroit is a special organization and any time you have the Red Wing logo facing off against the Blackhawk logo, it's a cool picture."

Making Tuesday night's showdown even cooler was the fact that after a bunch of days battling it out solely against guys in the same sweaters, this time the Hawks were going at it with someone else.

"Guys like playing real games; when I say real games, real exhibition games," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "Detroit's here, and everyone's excited to see them. It's a good opportunity against these guys."

It sure didn't start the way Quenneville and Co. were hoping as Detroit jumped out to a 1-0 lead just five minutes into the first period when Luke Gledening redirected a Danny Dekeyser blast from the point past Corey Crawford.

Slowly but surely, though, the Hawks began to find their way, and it was Keith leading them.

Some strong work by the veteran defenseman in his own end started the ball rolling and eventually led to newcomer Brad Richards sending a perfect pass to Patrick Kane just before center ice. No. 88 did the rest, finishing off his breakaway with a backhander past Jonas Gustavsson to tie the game after two,

"I thought they came out with a lot of speed and energy," Keith said of the Red Wings. "We got better as the game went along."

That included Crawford, who looked in midseason form, turning away 13 of the 14 shots he faced over a period-and-a-half of action.

"It was good to get some game action in," he said. "It'll be good to get a full game in soon."

Lemont's Scott Darling replaced Crawford and stopped all 5 shots he faced to send the game to overtime.

And by the time the Hawks reached OT, it was Keith again at the center of things, blasting a shot that Toews deflected in past Petr Mrazek for the victory.

"There's a lot of good, positive things going on in the room," Keith said. "You pick up a guy like Richards - a guy who has proven a lot in this league. He's got the leadership as well.

"There's a lot to look forward to here and a lot of positives, but it's just a matter of having a good start."

So far, so good.

• The Hawks assigned goaltenders Mac Carruth and Kent Simpson to the Rockford IceHogs and released forward Ryan Schnell and defensemen Kirill Gotovets, Justin Holl and Zach Miskovic from training camp. All four will now report to Rockford.

The team's active roster now includes 26 forwards, 16 defensemen and 4 goalies.

• Quenneville pronounced forwards Teuvo Teravainen and Joakim Nordstrom as day to day with upper-body injuries.