Hawks have their number

DETROIT -- Can you say total domination?

That would pretty much describe what the Red Wings did to the Blackhawks in the first two periods Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

But despite being outshot 30-6 for 40 minutes, the Hawks trailed only 3-2. Then Patrick Sharp took over in the third period, scoring 3 goals for his first career hat trick and giving the Hawks an improbable 5-3 victory.

Hawks goalie Nikolai Khabibulin made 39 saves in maybe his sharpest performance of the season.

"We said after the second period that as bad as we were playing, Nik kept us in the game and we were just 1 shot away from tying it up and getting some points out of it," Sharp said. "It was great to see the boys rally behind each other and come out and have a strong third period."

Rene Bourque's 2 short-handed goals were all the Hawks had to show for the first two periods. Bourque also made a pretty feed to Sharp on the tying goal 4:30 into the third period before leaving the game minutes later after taking a shot off his right thumb.

Bourque will have X-rays today.

The Hawks tied a team record with 3 short-handed goals with Sharp's second goal at 13:04 of the third period -- the eventual winner -- also coming a man short. Sharp sealed the win with an empty-net goal in the final minute.

That's 5 short-handed goals for Sharp and 8 for the Hawks as a team, both figures leading the NHL. It was the first time in franchise history that the Red Wings allowed 3 short-handed goals in one game.

"We're just being aggressive all over the ice," Sharp said. "We're just taking pucks to the net."

Bourque has 3 goals for the season, and each has come short-handed.

"I think we're just outworking other teams," Bourque said. "They don't expect us to come at them that hard."

The win was the Hawks' fourth over Detroit in four games. Of their 11 victories for the season, 4 are against the team many believe is the best in the Western Conference.

"It's a good change from my first few years here when we never beat them," Bourque said. "Now we've got their number the first four games."

The biggest number in each of the 4 victories over Detroit has been the 39 worn by Khabibulin.

"Khabibulin kept us in it and we played 20 minutes of solid hockey to steal these points," Sharp said.

"Obviously, our goalie was tremendous and probably got us the win," Hawks coach Denis Savard said. "We knew they were going to come out (hard). They sat four days waiting for this game and this was our third game in four nights. The main thing is we found a way to win."

Khabibulin talked only the other day of how the Hawks never feel they are out of any game.

"They were really flying the first two periods and for some reason we didn't have our legs," Khabibulin said. "But we found a way to get 2 points and we'll take it because at the end of the year they're not going to remember how we got them."