Blackhawks Go Down at Wrigley

Forward Jiri Hudler had two goals and an assist, helping to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 6-4 victory, over the Chicago Blackhawks, in the 2009 NHL Winter Classic, played outdoors in historic Wrigley Field, in Chicago.

Hudler's two goals, both scored in the second period of play, were the first two of five unanswered goals by Detroit, which helped the Red Wings turn a 3-1, early second period deficit into a 6-3 lead by the 3:24 mark of the third period.

The first period featured the teams trading three power-play goals, one each by Kris Versteeg, and Martin Havlat of Chicago, which sandwiched a power-play tally by Detroit's Mikael Samuelsson. The Blackhawks then gained a 3-1 lead, on a nice goal by Ben Eager, his seventh of the season, already a career high by Eager, in a single season. Eager, not known during his NHL career for his offense, made a nice move behind the net to beat Detroit goaltender Ty Conklin.

However it was the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings that seized control of the game in the second period, scoring three goals in that period, all even-strength goals, to take a 4-3 lead. In addition to the aforementioned goals by Hudler, Pavel Datsyuk scored the go-ahead goal for Detroit.

Detroit completed their unanswered goal streak with two third period goals, within 17 seconds of one another, a power-play goal by defenseman Brian Rafalski, and, an even-strength goal by defenseman Brett Lebda. The goal by Lebda was not originally ruled a goal on the ice, during play. However, a review of the television replay showed that the puck shot by Lebda did in fact hit the top of the inside of the goal net. The Blackhawks then pulled starting goaltender Cristobal Huet, with goalie Nikolai Khabibulin finishing the game for Chicago.

Chicago's Duncan Keith scored with 10 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.

Four Detroit players tallied three points each, including Hudler, Rafalski (one goal, two assists,) Marian Hossa (three assists,) and Henrik Zetterberg (three assists.) Havlat had three points (one goal, two assists) for Chicago.

Conklin, who has played in all three NHL regular-season outdoor games, in 2003 with Edmonton, and in 2008 with Pittsburgh, stopped 33 of 37 shots, for his 13th win of the season.

Detroit, who beat Chicago 4-0 on Tuesday night, in Detroit, is now 4-0 versus Chicago in the 2008-2009 season, and as a result, have increased their NHL Central Division lead to eight points over the Blackhawks.