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Sharks head to Detroit up two
By Jeremy Kahn May 2, 2010 |
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SAN JOSE-Joe Thornton came up with his first goal of the 2010 playoffs at the most opportune time for the San Jose Sharks. Thornton scored his first goal of the playoffs with 7:23 remaining in the third period as part of a 3-on-1 attack after Nicklas Lidstrom’s stick broke and the Sharks came back to defeat the two-time defending Western Conference Champion Detroit Red Wings 4-3 before a sellout crowd of 17,562 at a very loud and raucous HP Pavilion. “That's bad luck but the way I look at it is, you do good things over a long enough period of time, it goes your way. That's unfortunate Nick's stick broke and then obviously bounced off the goalie, hit our guy and right to their guy but in the playoff time when it goes your way you don't think it's good luck, you just think you're playing hard so I don't spend any time worrying about that,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard was peppered on 41 shots by the Sharks, and now the Red Wings head back home for the first time since April 25, when they lost game six of their opening round series against the Phoenix Coyotes. “This is very frustrating,” Howard said. “We had the game going into the third period, we’re up 3-2 but the penalties did us in, in the end.” Joe Pavelski continues to be the star of the playoffs for the Sharks, as he scored two goals, bringing his total for the playoffs up to nine, the most by any player this postseason. “Obviously he’s in the zone right now,” San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. “Everything he touches seems to go in the net. He had 11 shots on goal. He feels very comfortable. But he’s earned that. He works hard on every shift and he’s diligent. He’s a catalyst right now.” Pavelski also added an assist, as the Sharks take a two games to zero lead to Detroit, where the series will resume on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena. “We've got to make a series and right now it isn't. They're up 2-0 and we've got to go back and get ourselves regrouped and the number one priority for sure is staying out of the box. number two, we've got to do a way better job in the face-off circle. They have the puck way too much off face-off so do a better job in that area and then get going,” said Babcock. Pavel Datsuk got the scoring going for the Red Wings 6:51 in the first period, as he scored his sixth goal of the postseason. Pavelski tied it up just two minutes and 10 seconds later, as he scored his eighth goal of the postseason and second of the series. Ryan Clowe gave the Sharks their first lead of the game with 10:32 gone in the first period, as he scored on the backhand off the assist from Pavelski and Douglas Murray. Tomas Holmstrom scored his third goal of the playoffs on a tip-in, a power play goal that tied up the game and came off the assists from Johan Franzen and Brian Rafalski. Nicklas Lidstrom gave the Red Wings a 3-2 lead just two minutes into the second period, as he scored on a 50 foot slap shot as a boarding penalty to Patrick Marleau was coming to an end. Marleau’s return to the lineup after missing game one of the series due to an unknown ailment forced the Sharks to scratch Jed Ortmayer. The Sharks tied up the game on Pavelski’s second goal of the game, a eight-foot slap shot off the assists of Dany Heatley and Thornton. Heatley added three assists for the Sharks. Pavelski’s goal came during a five-on-three advantage for the Sharks, as the Sharks were on the power play on 10 different occasions, compared to just four times for the Red Wings. “It is tough especially when we haven't seen a 5-on-3 yet in this playoffs so it's tough to be two men down for that long and especially when you can't kill it off. If you kill it off you can get some momentum on your side but if they score and they still had a minute to go on the power play,” said Henrik Zetterberg. Evgeni Nabokov made 28 saves out on the evening , including a huge glove save on Datsuk in the third period. Overall, the Sharks out shot the Red Wings 45-31. NOTES: Since 1991, the Red Wings have played the most postseason games out of any team in the four major sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) with 252. The second place team on the list is the Los Angeles Lakers who have played in 226 games over the same period of time. Franzen tied Gordie Howe’s team record for points in consecutive playoff games at nine, as he picked up a point on Holmstrom’s goal. This was the third consecutive multi-goal game for Pavelski, and he is the first player to accomplish this since Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1992 playoffs and just the third ever in NHL playoff history. |
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