Red Wings spoil Hawks' home opener

"The stage -- rather, the ice -- was set for a magical, memorable evening. Banner unveilings and raisings commemorating amazing years such as the Blackhawks' last season always will do that.

All the Hawks had to do was deliver when the puck was dropped against the rival Detroit Red Wings on Saturday to make it a truly extraordinary day.

Those Red Wings, though, showed they're still a daunting challenge, ruining the Hawks' festivities with a 3-2 victory before a packed house at the United Center.

''[A win] just would have been icing on the cake,'' center Jonathan Toews said. ''Everyone that was in the building tonight would remember that moment before the game. Officially bringing the [Stanley] Cup to the United Center, it was a pretty cool thing. But we got past that pretty quick and had a great start to the game and hung in there. It's the little details to our game. That's a really good team out there. We know that. They're always going to be a tough team.''

Overall, it was a better game for the Hawks than their season opener Thursday against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver. But breakdowns still marred the decision.

Valtteri Filppula had two goals and Todd Bertuzzi also scored for the Red Wings, who were coming off a victory Friday against the Anaheim Ducks. On his first goal, Filppula was all alone next to goalie Marty Turco and redirected in a long pass from Johan Franzen. His second goal, the eventual game-winner, came after he skated around defenseman John Scott, who lost an edge and fell, during a Red Wings power play.

''I don't know what happened ... I went to cross over and just bailed,'' Scott said. ''I was just hoping it doesn't go in the net and I can get back into the play. I got burnt. You can't do that against good teams like this.''

Turco made 23 saves and had anticipated a sliding Niklas Hjalmarsson to help prevent Filppula's second goal. "

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/2788726,CST-SPT-hawk10.article