The last time the Blackhawks defeated the Red Wings four straight games, five members of the team hadn't been born.
The Hawks accomplished the feat Saturday night for the first time since the 1985-86 season with a 5-3 victory before a crowd of 20,006 at Joe Louis Arena.
Rene Bourque, Patrick Sharp and Nikolai Khabibulin led the way for the Hawks, who were playing their third game in four nights on the road. Bourque (two) and Sharp combined for three short-handed goals and Khabibulin turned away 39 Detroit shots to top a Wings team that hadn't played since Tuesday night.
The Hawks (11-8-1) were outplayed in the first two periods, being outshot 30-6, and trailed 3-2 entering the third on Bourque's short-handed efforts. Sharp then broke out for three goals, including his fourth short-hander of the season.
"We said after the second period, as bad as we were playing, 'Nik' kept us in the game, and we were just one shot away from tying it up and getting some points out of it," said Sharp, who recorded his first career hat trick. "It was great to see the boys rally behind each other and have a strong third period."
Bourque opened the scoring with Dustin Byfuglien in the box for tripping when he picked up a loose puck, skated in on Red Wings goalie Dominik Hasek and beat the veteran with a forehand shot at the 1-minute-16-second mark of the first.
Brian Rafalski answered for the Wings at 5:46 of the first to make it 1-1, but Bourque struck again with a teammate in the penalty box with 7:11 left in the second. Jim Vandermeer fired the puck into the Wings' zone and it took a funny bounce in front to Bourque, who snapped off a shot between the pads of Hasek for a 2-1 Hawks lead.
It was the ninth time in Hawks history a player has had two short-handed goals in one game. Sharp did it Nov. 3 in a victory over St. Louis.
Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom tied it 2-2 just 36 seconds later and the Wings took a 3-2 lead with 31 seconds remaining in the second when Henrik Zetterberg scored his 14th goal.
Sharp scored his eighth goal of the season at even strength to tie it 3-3 at the 4:30 mark of the third when he banged home a shot after a scramble in front.
The Hawks took a 4-3 lead when, with teammate Jonathan Toews in the box for a delay-of-game penalty, Sharp picked up a loose puck at center ice and broke in on Hasek and scored. It was the fourth time in Hawks history they have scored three short-handed goals in a game and the first time Detroit has yielded three in a game.
Sharp finished the scoring with an empty-netter.
"We scored three short-handed goals [and] you can't really count on that every game, but it just happened and we'll take it," Khabibulin said.
"There's a confidence in that dressing room that we can score goals. Now we have skill up front. … Sharp and Bourque stepped up and got some goals for us."
Bourque left the ice with 11 minutes left in the third period after he took a shot off his right thumb while helping kill a Hawks penalty.
He will be examined Sunday in Chicago to find out the severity of the injury.