Kane's able -- Hawks stun Wings

All the hype, all the talk, all the adjectives the Blackhawks threw around to describe what they thought they had in this year's team, it was all put to its first test Saturday night.

Against the Detroit Red Wings, still the class of the Central Division, and before a nearly packed home crowd that was looking for any reason to share in that excitement, the Hawks proved themselves in dramatic fashion.

After they rallied from a 2-goal deficit in the third period, 18-year-old rookie Patrick Kane scored the only goal in the deciding shootout, and the Hawks defeated the Red Wings 4-3 in the home opener.

With a move he practiced all summer, Kane, the 2007 No. 1 overall pick, scored on a backhand shot to the net's the right corner, just beating Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek, a childhood hero of his growing up in Buffalo.

"It's funny because I grew up watching the Sabres and Dominik Hasek, and the next thing you know I'm going down on a shootout against him," Kane said. "Time flies by, but it's unbelievable I scored my first goal on that. It was unbelievable.

"It's been quite a whirl the past couple months. First getting drafted, then playing in the NHL, then going down in a shootout on Dominik Hasek. It was a great night for me. I was having a great time too."

Said Hawks coach Denis Savard: "He's a special kid. It's nothing to do with me. It's all to do about him. A kid's that's under pressure, strives under it. He wants to be the guy. I think it's exciting for our fans."

Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin provided the excitement on the other end of the ice. Khabibulin stopped all three of Detroit's shootout chances. He also kept the Red Wings scoreless from halfway through the second period until Jiri Hudler missed wide right on Detroit's final shootout opportunity. Khabibulin finished with 23 saves, 11 of which came in the third period and overtime.

Kane's and Khabibulin's late heroics were enabled by third-period goals by James Wisniewski and Robert Lang.

Down 3-1 in the final period, the Hawks began their comeback on a short-handed goal when Kevyn Adams and Wisniewski played a 2-on-1 opportunity perfectly at 3:41. With the crowd into the game from there on, hanging on every shot, Lang rewarded most of the 18,768 fans who stuck around by scoring with just under four minutes left in the game with a slap shot over the left shoulder of Hasek.

To Wisniewski, the game was a message to the rest of the NHL.

"I think it kind of sends to the league that the Chicago Blackhawk organization is turning it around," he said. "Our prospects are getting older and getting more experience. The free agents that we signed, the Yanic Perreault, the Robert Lang, they're great fill-ins. They have the leadership to take us through to the next level."

Savard dedicated the win to Bill Wirtz.

"That one's for Mr. Wirtz," Savard said. "Great win. We just stuck with what the game plan was and the character of our guys showed. They never quit. That's a great team we faced. This is a team that's been contending for Stanley Cups for the last 10 years and we played with them. We played right with them."

"It's a big confidence booster for us. I told our guys, 'You better believe. It could be done.'"

Prior to the game, the Hawks remembered longtime owner Wirtz, who recently passed away. The Hawks players encircled the team's logo at center ice while general manager Dale Tallon spoke of Wirtz, and a moment of silence followed.

Tallon's first reference to Wirtz was met by an assortment of boos from the crowd.