The Chicago Blackhawks may well be the team to beat in the NHL this season, but they didn't show it for a full 60 minutes Thursday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Hawks outshot the Wings, 9-4, early on and took a 1-0 lead on Patrick Sharp's goal 1:23 into the second period. But the Wings came back to score three unanswered goals in the second period and went on to win, 3-2.

Kris Versteeg, who assisted on Sharp's goal, scored a power-play goal at 10:24 of the third to close to within a goal, but they couldn't get a tying goal past Chris Osgood.

"I don't think we have any complaints on this side that we weren't trying," said Versteeg. "Osgood made a lot of good saves and they had a lot of blocked shots."

As skilled as the Blackhawks are offensively, their defense and goaltending will have to be much better than they were last season when the Wings prevailed in the Western Conference finals.

But the Blackhawks say they believe they have closed the gap on the Wings. In fact, some even think there is no gap.

"I don't know how the media perceives it, but we don't think there's a gap," Versteeg said. "We're not the only team in the league that thinks that. All 29 teams besides us think they have a shot against any team on any night. I think we're right there with them. We just gotta keep playing hard and things will start going our way."

What stings for the Blackhawks is that they thought they controlled the play for the better part of two periods but left Detroit without any points.

"They know when to score," Versteeg said. "They have timely goal scoring over there. And they've done it for years, so you gotta give them credit."

The Wings tied the game when Nick Lidstrom's goal went in off the skate of John Madden (Michigan), the defensive forward who joined the Blackhawks on a one-year deal in July.

"I think the turning point was the one that went off my skate and into the net," Madden said. "Changed the momentum of the game and gave them life. Up until that point I thought we were in the driver's seat."

But Kris Draper scored at 16:15 of the second and the Wings went ahead, 3-1, less than 2 minutes later on a power-play goal by Johan Franzen.

The Blackhawks outshot the Wings 15-4 in the third and 34-23 for the game.

"We gotta capitalize on our scoring chances," said Sharp. "Personally I had a few that should have" gone "into the back of the net. We'll continue to get better and we'll see these guys five more times."