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Blackhawks top Red Wings behind Sharp, Bourque

Nov 18, 2007 - 4:47 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Being shorthanded is not always a bad thing. Just ask the Chicago Blackhawks.

Rene Bourque scored a pair of shorthanded goals and Patrick Sharp recorded a natural hat trick in the third period that included his league-leading fourth while down a skater as the Blackhawks remained perfect against the Detroit Red Wings this season with a 5-3 victory on Saturday.

Sharp and Bourque each added an assist and Nikolai Khabibulin made 39 saves for Chicago, which leads the NHL with eight shorthanded tallies.

"We're going to be a little more aggressive when we can," Blackhawks coach Denis Savard said of his penalty-killing unit. "We got the bounces, let's face it."

"It's careless play," Detroit defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom said of allowing three shorthanded goals. "We didn't take care of the puck when we had it. You have to play defense even when you're on the power play. We just have to play better defensively."

With the Blackhawks trailing, 3-2, after two periods, Sharp was all but unstoppable in the third, reeling off three straight goals for his first career hat trick.

"We knew going into the third period we had to play well," Bourque said. "We had 20 minutes to get back into it. We hadn't played well in the second period."

Just 4 1/2 minutes into the final period, Bourque knocked the puck into the crease from the left side of the net. Sharp was there to tap it past goaltender Dominik Hasek, forging a 3-3 tie.

"We were a little too passive to start the third," Lidstrom said. "We just let them back into the game again."

Just over a minute after rookie Jonathan Toews was called for delay of game, Sharp skated down the right wing on a partial breakaway after Lidstrom fell at the left point. While shielding the puck from oncoming blue-liner Niklas Kronwall, Sharp put it by Hasek at 13:04, giving the Blackhawks a 4-3 edge.

"We've had success all year shorthanded, and we tried to be aggressive," Sharp said. "Anytime we have a chance to take it to the net, we do."

"They haven't given up or gone away whenever we're up a goal or two," Lidstrom said. "That's a lot of credit to them, but we as a team have to do a better job when we've got the lead and continue to play hard for 60 minutes."

Sharp was stopped on another shorthanded breakaway with six minutes remaining, but he completed his hat trick - and Chicago's fourth win in as many meetings with Detroit this season - with an empty-netter with 30 seconds left.

"It was fun," Sharp said of his three-goal effort, the first allowed by the Red Wings at home since October 29, 2003, when Doug Weight accomplished the feat for the St. Louis Blues.

"He played great," Savard said of Sharp. "I told you guys last year. I gave him more ice time and his play got better."

Bourque got things started just 76 seconds into the contest, netting a shorthanded goal to give the Blackhawks a 1-0 lead.

With Chicago defenseman Dustin Byfuglien in the penalty box for tripping, Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg won a faceoff in the offensive zone. But Bourque pounced on the puck and banked it off the right wing boards in the neutral zone before skating around blue-liner Brian Rafalski and retrieving it.

Racing in alone on Hasek, Bourque slipped the puck past the six-time Vezina Trophy winner for his second goal of the season.

The Red Wings answered at 5:47, as Rafalski atoned for his earlier gaffe by grabbing a rebound at the inner edge of the right circle and firing the puck between the pads of Khabibulin.

Bourque struck again while shorthanded in the second period to give Chicago a 2-1 edge.

Defenseman Jim Vandermeer dumped the puck into Detroit's zone along the left wing boards. It took a strange bounce in the corner and wound up in the slot for Bourque, who blasted it between Hasek's legs at 12:49.

All three of Bourque's tallies this season have come while killing penalties.

The Red Wings cashed in on the same power play 36 seconds later, when Tomas Holmstrom scored his 10th of the season to knot the contest at 2-2. Lidstrom unleashed a slap shot from above the slot that was tipped by Zetterberg in the left circle before Holmstrom tapped the puck past Khabibulin with 6:35 to go in the period.

Zetterberg gave Detroit its first lead with 31 seconds remaining in the session, receiving a feed from behind the net by Pavel Datsyuk and burying a shot from the left side for his 14th goal.

Holmstrom and Zetterberg each added an assist and Hasek made just 12 saves for Detroit, which was outshot, 42-17.

"They'll say they deserved better, and of course, they did," Savard said.

Khabibulin made 27 of his saves over the first two periods. His team, in turn, registered just three shots in each of the sessions.

"The game could have been lost in the first 40 minutes, but Nikolai Khabibulin kept us in it," Sharp admitted.