Blackhawks defeat Wings in shootout, 4-3

In the home seasoner opener for the Chicago Blackhawks, they managed to sneak out a win in the shootout after coming from behind. Not only did the Wings blow a 2-0 lead, but Johan Franzen also suffered a knee injury in the second period and did not return.

Johan Franzen left Saturday's game in Chicago with an injured right knee after Tuomo Ruutu fell on him. Franzen will have an MRI Sunday to determine the extent of the injury. After the game, Franzen was limping slightly. He compared the injury to what happened to his left knee last season when Willie Mitchell knocked him out with a late hit. That injury (to his left knee) kept Franzen out of nine games last season.

"I had almost the same kind of thing last year ... (but) that was worse," said Franzen. "It's OK right now. It hurts a little bit right now, but I've got pain-killers."

Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Jiri Hudler all came up short in their shootout attempts while Chicago's Patrick Kane scored against Dominik Hasek. Kane was the first overall pick at this year's NHL draft and that was his first goal in the NHL. Pretty impressive for an 18 year old considering the pressure of a shootout and going up against a goaltender like the Dominator.

"I went down, expect maybe close my five hole, and he made a move to the backhand," Hasek said. "Nice move."

I must say that newcomers Brian Rafalski and Dallas Drake are really doing their best to get Detroit fans to like them. Drake has now fought in both regular season games while Rafalski has scored a goal and notched two assists in the same timespan.

Henrik Zetterberg assisted on all three Detroit goals. Rafalski earned a goal and an assist tonight. Captain Nicklas Lidstrom scored once and added an assist to his offensive numbers. Mikael Samuelsson assisted on Lidstrom's goal. Tomas Holmstrom scored the final goal in typical fasion, deflecting Rafalski's shot from the point while on the power play.

Chicago barely outshot Detroit, 27-26.

It was a fun game to watch and the crowd was pretty loud and large in size, which was slightly surprising because the Chicago Cubs played tonight in the playoffs (and were consequently kicked out of the postseason). However, it was also frustrating to watch the Wings blow a lead with only three and a half minutes left in the game. Plus, it didn't help that former Wing Robert Lang scored the tying goal.

The Wings next game is at home on Monday evening against the Edmonton Oilers.