Sharks Defeat Defensively-Depleted Detroit
Sharks 3, Red Wings 2
Friday night, the San Jose Sharks defeated the Detroit Red Wings by a final score of 3 - 2. This win extended Team Teal's current winning streak to four games. Granted, Detroit was without the services of two future Hall-of-Fame defenseman (Lidstrom and Chelios), but it was a win nonetheless. The two points keep San Jose within reach of the Anaheim Ducks who currently hold the fourth playoff spot which guarantees home-ice through the playoffs.
In the first period, the Sharks got things started when Joe Pavelski scored his 14th goal of the season giving the assist to Patrick Rissmiller. On the play, Number 8 stepped on to the ice while San Jose was in the middle of a line change. After receiving the puck, Pavelski wristed a shot on net which beat a partially screened Dominik Hasek. This goal gave the Sharks an early one goal lead.
In the second period, the Sharks continued to skate well and pushed the lead to two when rookie Devin Setoguchi scored his 10th of the season. This time, the other Patrick (Marleau) was the man assisting on the play. Unfortunately, this lead would be cut in half less than two minutes later when Detroit scored on the powerplay. Henrik Zetterberg scored his 36th of the season on a nice redirection which Nabby had no chance of stopping. At the end of two periods, the score stood at 2 -1 with the Sharks maintaining a one goal lead.
In the third period, San Jose got lucky...very lucky. While on the powerplay, Craig Rivet put a shot on net that seemed to deflect up into the netting. However, with no whistle on the play, Setoguchi pounced on the puck that dropped to the near side of the net and beat Hasek for his second goal of the night. The Red Wings complained that a whistle should have been blown and that the goal shouldn't have been allowed. Fortunately for the Sharks, none of the officials saw what happened and the goal stood.
However, later in the third, Detroit was granted what I think was a make-up call. With a two-man advantage, the Red Wings scored to bring them within a single goal. This gave Detroit roughly seven minutes to tie the game, but the Sharks defense held up. Nabokov stopped all shots on net for the remainder of the game and San Jose skated away with the two points.
This win guarantees the Sharks a .500 road trip which started out 0 for 3. Hopefully, San Jose has enough in the tank to beat the Blues tomorrow night and make this a very successful road trip.
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