Hawks go toe to toe with Wings, but defending champs prevail

If the Blackhawks were trying to send a message to the Detroit Red Wings that the Central Division won't be their usual skate in the park this season, it was delivered loud and clear Saturday night.

But the Red Wings had a message of their own, and it had everything to do with reminding the Hawks that they are the defending Stanley Cups champs.

In a wildly entertaining game played before a United Center regular-season record crowd for hockey of 22,690, the Red Wings rallied from 2 goals down in the third period to beat the Hawks 6-5 in a shootout.

The Hawks took a 4-2 lead into the third period only to watch the Red Wings storm back with 3 unanswered goals in the first 9:23 by Niklas Kronwall, Pavel Datsyuk and Jiri Hudler to go ahead.

"We're just coming into our own here and we've got nothing to hang our heads about," Hawks winger Patrick Kane said. "They're a great team and they know how to win these games and we're young and we have to figure out how to."

The Hawks dropped to 0-3 in shootouts, with Kane going 0-for-3 in his personal attempts after missing only twice all of last season.

Patrick Sharp and Martin Havlat also missed in the shootout. The Red Wings got goals from Datsyuk and Marian Hossa, with Hossa ending the shootout with a bang on a slap shot, of all things, past Nikolai Khabibulin.

"Sometimes I wasn't successful in penalty shootouts before," Hossa said. "I saw an opening, so why not slap shot?"

The Hawks had leads of 2-1 and 4-2 but couldn't hold them.

"It was a tough game to play," Hossa said. "Chicago played well, especially in the beginning. But we didn't quit. It was a great game for the fans."

The Red Wings flashed their scary skill and took advantage of some sloppy defensive coverage by the Hawks early in the third period to turn a 4-2 deficit into a 5-4 lead.

Datsyuk's goal that made it 4-4 at 3:15 was a one-hand deke tuck that caught Khabibulin going the opposite way.

"I thought we did a lot of good things," Hawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "We gave up a couple tough goals that maybe we can talk about as a group and learn from, but they make special 1-on-1 plays that not too many teams or players in the league make and we got victimized on probably 2 goals like that."

Kane's power-play goal during a 5-on-3 with 7:23 to play made it 5-5 and set up overtime.

The Hawks picked up at least 1 point for the sixth straight game. In fact, since opening the season with losses at New York and Washington, the Hawks are 3-0-3 and have captured 9 out of a possible 12 points.

The loss came on a day when rumors began to swirl out of Toronto that the Hawks might be in the mix to sign free-agent center Mats Sundin.

"Really?" said one Hawk. "I think we could find room for him."