Wrigley setting just perfect ... until Red Wings show who's still boss

Indoors or outdoors, the Detroit Red Wings still rule.

For the second time in three days the Red Wings took it to the Hawks in a convincing way Thursday afternoon at Wrigley Field, rallying for a 6-4 victory in the NHL's Winter Classic.

In what was a spectacular setting for hockey in the historic North Side ballpark, the Red Wings capitalized on a shaky performance by goalie Cristobal Huet to score 5 unanswered goals after coming out of the first period down 3-1.

"We did everything we wanted to do in the first period. I thought we were a much better team than them, and then we stopped playing," said Martin Havlat, who had a goal and assists on scores by Kris Versteeg and Ben Eager in the opening 20 minutes.

What was a team-record nine-game Hawks victory streak has become a two-game losing streak thanks to the defending Stanley Cup champs, who taught their upstart Central Division rivals another lesson on how to win.

"Obviously it brings you back down to earth a little bit playing these guys," Duncan Keith said. "They can expose your weaknesses because they have the team to do that, but I think we'll just learn from it and actually become a better team from playing these guys."

The Hawks are 0-2-2 against Detroit this season and have blown 2-goal leads in 3 of the losses. They're now back to trailing the Red Wings by 8 points in the division.

"It's tough for us to sit up here and talk about how good the Red Wings are, but they're the best team in the league, in my opinion," Patrick Sharp said.

"I think they definitely sent a message a couple nights ago and they came out and stepped it up again today," Jonathan Toews said. "They just keep coming at you. They've got a bunch of guys that play the game the right way, and they don't get rattled when they get down a couple goals."

Huet had won his last five starts but looked as unsteady as he did early in the season.

Pavel Datsyuk beat Huet through the pads at 17:17 of the second period to snap a 3-3 tie after he blew between defensemen Brian Campbell and Cam Barker.

But Brian Rafalski's goal 3:07 into the third period was the softest, a stoppable shot from the right side that somehow got under Huet's pad.

Huet was gone to the bench 17 seconds later after Brett Lebda scored to make it 6-3, replaced by Nikolai Khabibulin.

"They came hard in the second period," Huet said. "They got an early goal and felt they were right back at it."

Jiri Hudler's goal 1:14 into the second period after a turnover by the Hawks in the neutral zone made it 3-2 and seemed to turn the game around.

"They got a little life after that," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "All of a sudden it's 3-3 and Datsyuk makes a special play. It's tough to play catch-up with them because they have the puck all the time."

The Red Wings simply never panic when they are behind.

"We didn't think we were very good in the first," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "We've got a good hockey team, as you know, an experienced group that don't get rattled very easily. You want to be proud of each other, so we thought we better get going."

Time will tell if the Hawks lost any of their momentum in these 2 losses to Detroit.

"I think it's a good measuring stick, knowing we have to improve as a team," Quenneville said. "We accomplished a lot prior to these last two games, and I just think that looking at the top two teams in our conference, Detroit and San Jose, there's a level there that we need to make sure we're closing the gap.

"We should be looking to improve, knowing that's the type of team game we need to play from start to finish. That's the gap we've got to look to close."

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