Wings Come Out On Top In Western Battle DETROIT (AP) -- After falling behind by three goals in the first period, the Chicago Blackhawks didn't panic. "I took a time out and told the guys to stay with it," Chicago coach Brian Sutter said. Eric Daze scored two third-period goals and the Blackhawks recovered from a three-goal deficit to tie the Detroit Red Wings 4-4 on Sunday night. "I was proud of our guys," Sutter said. Alex Zhamnov and Kyle Calder also scored for Chicago, which is tied with Dallas for the most ties in the league with six. "It was good to see when it's 3-0, we didn't quit," Zhamnov said. "I think we deserve the point." Darren McCarty, Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan and Kris Draper each scored for Detroit, which has its best record after 25 games at 20-3-1-1. After a scoreless first period, the Red Wings scored three goals in a span of 5:13 in the second period. The Blackhawks' comeback began early in the third period. Zhamnov scored on a nice individual effort on the power play at 5:37 to make it 3-2. Daze scored his first goal at 6:55, beating Detroit goaltender Dominik Hasek and tying the game. With 9:32 left to play, Daze stole the puck from Detroit's Mathieu Dandenault and lifted the puck over Hasek to give Chicago a 4-3 lead. "I just wanted to get the puck upstairs and that's what I did," Daze said. "I knew he was ready for the five-hole." McCarty tied it with 6:40 left. Luc Robitaille sent the puck to McCarty at the left side and McCarty had a wide-open net. The goal was the first for McCarty, who scored 12 goals last season. "I just convinced myself that I'd never score again and that took all the pressure off," McCarty said. Calder scored at 8:22 of the second period to cut the Red Wings' lead to 3-1. "They came up with a big goal like good teams do," Daze said. "They find a way to get points." The tie gave the Blackhawks a 1-0-1 record against the Red Wings this season. "Every team is ready to play them," Daze said. "The last five or six years they've been one of the top teams in the league." The Red Wings, one of the oldest teams in the league, are in the middle of playing five games in eight days and Detroit head coach Scotty Bowman thinks that might have been a factor. "We didn't have a lot of energy tonight," Bowman said. "I don't know if the games have caught up." Steve Passmore, getting just his second start of the season in goal for Chicago, has never lost in Detroit when playing for the Blackhawks. "That had nothing to do with me tonight," said Passmore, who had 17 saves. "I'm pretty happy this team battled back to get us the point. That says a lot for the guys in here and the character in here." Game notes Detroit defenseman Nick Lidstrom played in his 800th career game Sunday night and extended his points streak to eight games (2-8-10). ... Their previous best was 17-6-2 in both the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons. ... Passmore's last start was in Anaheim on Nov. 2. |