(AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
By Pearl Allison Lo
~ Though the Detroit Red Wings did score four goals, San Jose responded each time they were down, to earn a 6-4 win Thursday.
The Sharks ended a three-game losing streak with the help of special teams. They killed off at least one power play against the NHL’s #1 power play team in each period. Even more, San Jose held the Red Wings without a power play goal. Detroit has had 12 such goals in their last 13.
Other statistics in favor of the Sharks were faceoff wins (34-27), giveaways (5-12) and blocked shots (17-8).
San Jose has now won seven of the last eight in Detroit and 11 of the last 14 overall. Sharks’ goalie Antti Niemi has a record of 13-3-2 versus the Red Wings.
The end periods saw a whole bunch of action, with five goals in the first and four in the third.
The Sharks had two-goal leads three times, but they did not last too long until the end.
San Jose’s Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored 19 seconds into the game. It started with a turnover in Detroit’s end which Melker Karlsson recovered and Vlasic slapped in from the blue line. The goal marked Vlasic’s career-best ninth goal.
Matt Nieto then extended the Sharks’ lead at 9:14, helped by Chris Tierney and Justin Braun.
It did not take long for San Jose to experience the opposing team coming back again though.
Less than a minute later, Tomas Jurco cut the lead in half at 10:04, assisted by Drew Miller and Danny DeKeyser. The puck made a roundabout entrance into the net, as it hit several Sharks’ players before going over the line.
Then, just over a minute and a half later, Tomas Tatar made it 2-2, aided by DeKeyser. The scoring play also started with a turnover, this one in San Jose’s zone
This time, however, the Sharks were able to respond with a goal.
Tierney scored at 16:02 to make it 3-2, helped by Tommy Wingels and Mirco Mueller. It was Tierney’s second goal in as many games. He has three points in that span.
San Jose killed two power plays in the period.
The second period saw Red Wings’ goalie Jimmy Howard pulled for Petr Mrazek.
It was a see-saw third period. The period started with another turnover and early goal, 31 seconds, as the Sharks got their first one past Mrazek. Logan Couture received credit, as the puck bounced off the left post into the net, to make it 4-2. Patrick Marleau got the assist.
Stephen Weiss continued the back-and-forth scoring as he used a rebound to get the puck past Niemi. Weiss was aided by Teemu Pulkkinen and Brendan Smith at 3:39.
Marleau then made it 5-3 less than half a minute later, helped by Brent Burns. The last time the teams met, Marleau also scored.
Next, Justin Abdelkader made it 5-4, assisted by Jonathan Ericsson and Niklas Kronwall at 12:33. The puck actually went off San Jose’s Scott Hannan, but Abdelkader was credited with his third goal in as many games, a total of five points in that span. Kronwall returned after missing Detroit’s last game.
Finally, Marleau made it 6-4 with his second goal of the night. He scored on an empty net at 18:43.
Game notes: The Red Wings’ Pavel Datsyuk was out for a fifth straight game. Detroit was also without Erik Cole. The Sharks announced the signings of recent college graduates, goaltender Joel Rumpel and defenseman Joakim Ryan. San Jose has an early game next, 10am on March 28 versus the Philadelphia Flyers.
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