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Sharks take game one from Detroit
By Dave Fowkes April 29, 2010 |
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(San Jose, CA) -- The San Jose Sharks win game one of the second round series against Detroit 4-3. Joe Pavelski scored two goals and had an assist and Evgeni Nabokov made 20 saves to lead the Sharks to their first game one home playoff win since 2007. Dany Heatley had a goal and an assist, Devin Setoguchi scored a goal and Dan Boyle had three assists and Jason Demers had two for the Sharks. Dan Cleary, Johan Franzen and Brian Rafalski scored for Detroit and Jimmy Howard made 23 saves. The Sharks opened the game with a surprise announcement. Patrick Marleau was scratched due to an undisclosed injury. Officially he is listed as day-to-day although Joe Thornton says he expects Marleau back for game two. The Sharks busted out early with three goals in a 1:24 span in the middle of the first period. Special teams was key for San Jose. The Sharks were 2-6 on the power play while the Wings were 0-5 on the extra man advantage. “We said from the start, whoever is going to win the special teams is probably going to win this series,” Thornton said. “So it was a good start tonight.” Pavelski got the Sharks on the board first on the power play. Just after a 4-3 power play expired the Sharks were set up in the offensive zone. Boyle found Pavelski in the slot and he launched a shot that beat Howard on his right side. “I think if you follow the team and watched his play he’s been pretty inspirational,” Coach Todd McLellan said of Pavelski. “He’s scored some real big goals and again tonight he found a way to make an impact on the game. That’s what the playoffs are about. You have to raise your game up a little bit.” The “Top line” followed up just 56 seconds later. Thornton behind the net passed out front to the crashing Heatley who poked it for the 2-0 lead. “I went around the net and the puck happened to be there,” Thornton described. “Dany with his big body I just saw him out of the corner of my eye and just put it on him. He is not going to miss those too often. It was a good goal.” Setoguchi made it 3-0 just 23 seconds later. Pavelski somehow got to the puck in the slot between two defenders and as he was sent flying, he shoveled a pass over to Setoguchi in the other slot who wristed a shot to the right of Howard. Any other team may have quite at that point. Not the Red Wings. 1:16 after falling back by three goals, the Red Wings answered. First they upped the temp and it paid dividends. A defensive breakdown left Cleary standing right at the side of Nabokov. Jonathan Ericsson easily passed the puck to him for the easy redirect and their first goal. The Red Wings drew closer about five minutes into the second period. After creating a turnover in the Sharks zone, Cleary set up camp right in front of Nabokov who had no chance to see anything except the White #11 in front of him. Franzen got the puck and wristed a shot over Nabokov’s glove. With 2:13 left in the second period, Cleary got hurt. He ran into his own player at center ice and as he fell, the back of his head bounced off of Rob Blake’s knee. The game was delayed a few minutes before he skated off to the bench with minor assistance from the trainers. He would return in the third period. At the end of the second period, the Wings took a tripping penalty and a high stick. It set up the Sharks up for a 57-second two man advantage to open the third period. With 8 seconds left on the two man advantage, Pavelski scored his second. From the left side he just beat Howard in the five-hole of a pass of Heatley. 4-2 Sharks. The Wings would not go away. They answered right away with a goal from Rafalski. Detroit sent two men to the net, Datsyuk made a quick back handed pass to Rafalski coming in from the side who beat Nabokov on this glove side. The lead was back down to one. That would do it for the scoring. The Sharks played great defense limiting the desperate Wings to just five shots on net. “They are used to putting up 40 or so shots,” Thornton said. “So for us to lock it down like that with the puck skills they have is pretty good for a pretty good defensive team.” The last time the Sharks won a game one at home was in 2007. It was against Detroit. The Sharks would win the first two games of that series before dropping four straight. Game two is Sunday in San Jose with a 5pm face off. End of Game Notes: **The Sharks scored three goals in a 1:19 span in the first period. It is the fastest three goals in postseason franchise history breaking a mark set April 13, 2008 vs. Calgary (2:02). **Jason Demers recorded his first postseason multi-point game with two assists. **Dan Boyle’s three assists tied a single-game franchise postseason record – done seven times [MR: Christian Ehrhoff (4/25/06 vs. Nashville)] – and moved him ahead of all NHL blue liners in defenseman scoring for the 2010 postseason (2+7=9). |
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