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Sharks respond to tongue
lashing
Sharks score 5 at the Joe to avenge prior
loss to Wings
A tongue lashing by head coach Todd McLellan woke
up the Sharks at Joe Louis Arena on Monday night. Hopefully it last more than
one game. In a continuation of their on-again, off-again season, the Sharks
repaid the Detroit Red Wings for an embarrassing 5-3 loss on home ice last week
with a decisive 5-2 win on Detroit ice. The Sharks would play one of the
poorest periods of the season to open the game, initiating a heated response
from McLellan.
The Sharks did a great job of backing themselves into a
corner early, by taking a series of bad penalties that would come back to bite
them. Detroit would take an 8-1 shot lead through the first seven minutes of
the contest, and if not for a strong performance by their neminder Antti Niemi,
San Jose may have been replaying their last game against Detroit. Derek Joslin
would take a cross checking penalty at 7:08, putting the Red Wings on the power
play for the first time and Detroit would cash in.
Niklas Lidstrom
would put a shot on net that was deflected by Tomas Holmstrom 50 seconds into
the power play to put Detroit up 1-0.
Valteri Filppula appeared to
make it 2-0 seconds later after his shot trickled between Antti Niemi’s
pads, but the on-ice officials lost site of the puck and whistled the play
dead, before the puck crossed the goal line.
The lack of response so
quickly after Holmstrom’s goal was reason enough for McLellan to lose his
temper on the bench. He was visibly barking at his bench after the play to wake
his players up. He would also let his players have it in the dressing room
after the first 20 minutes of play.
A penalty to Red Wings forward
Justin Abdelkader would put the Sharks on the power pl ay with 9 minutes to
play in the period, and McLellan’s outburst seemed to trigger the response
he wanted from his players as the Sharks generated several scoring chances on
the power play, but Red Wings netminder Jimmy Howard weathered the storm.
Joslin would take an elbowing penalty at 14:17, but it would be San
Jose that would strike gold. An errant pass by Filpula found itself on Dany
Heatley’s stick and headed up ice. Heatley skated past Jiri Hudler and had
only Niklas Kronwall to beat as he approached the net with Joe Thornton on his
right. He would slide the puck to Thornton, who held it for a second before
lifting a shot past Howard.
Kronwall would draw a ridiculous penalty
on Logan Couture for roughing after he leveled Ryane Clowe with a hit along the
side boards. Couture pushed Kronwall, earning one of the softest roughing
penalties you’ll ever see.
Once again, the Detroit power play
would cash in, when Johan Franzen put a shot from the bottom of the right
circle past Niemi. Holmstrom drove to the left post, drawing two Shark
defenders over to that side of the ice before sending a pass to Franzen. Niemi
tried diving to his left to cutoff the shot, but he was too late to stop the
Red Wings forward from scoring his 12th of the season.
Niemi kept the
Sharks within striking distance by making 16 saves in the period. The red Wings
wouldn’t put anything past the sharks netminder 5-on-5.
The Sharks would go to work in the 2nd period, but not
before killing a Joe Thornton holding penalty that carried over from previous
stanza.
Heatley would knot the game at 2-2 by tipping a Niklas Wallin
shot at 4:53 of the period. Wallin’s shot was actually deflected by a Red
Wings forward before it split the circles. Heatley was parked in front of the
net, reaching out with his stick to tip it again past Howard.
Lightning would strike 8 seconds later when Logan Couture grabbed the faceoff,
skated into the Detroit zone and fired a shot from the left dot, beating Howard
glove side. The goal would miss tying the franchise record for fastest
consecutive goals by one second.
Heatley would add his second of the
period with a 12 foot shot that beat Howard inside the right post after the
Sharks sneaked past the Detroit defense, creating a 2-on-1. Heatley had a
passing option to his left, but elected to snap the shot that would put the
Sharks up by a pair with 63 seconds to play in the period.
Drew Miller
clanked a shot off the left post with 12 minutes to play in the 3rd period.
Couture made it 5-2 Sharks at 11:17 when a puck to the net was
deflected off his skate. Clowe threw the puck to the front of the net as
Couture was skating through the crease, catching the deflection for his 2nd of
the night and 12th of the season.
Niemi would get another chance to
face the Detroit power play late in the contest, and he would deny the Red
Wings any late heroics by stopping three shots.
The loss was only
Detroit’s second in regulation on home ice this season.
Game
Notes:
Defenseman Jason Demers and Niklas Wallin returned to the
lineup on Monday night. Mike Moore was reassigned to Worcester to clear roster
space.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
1 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
| DET |
2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
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| 1st period - 1, DET,
Holmstrom 8 (Lidstrom, Rafalski), 7:48, (pp). 2, SJ, Thornton 7 (Heatley),
15:59, (sh). 3, DET, Franzen 12 (Holmstrom, Rafalski), 18:35, (pp). |
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| 2nd period - 4, SJ,
Heatley13 (Wallin, Braun), 4:53. 5, SJ, Couture 11 (Clowe), 5:01. 6, SJ,
Heatley 14 (Murray), 18:57. |
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| 3rd period - 7, SJ,
Couture 12 (Clowe, Joslin), 11:17. |
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| 1st period - Joslin, SJ
(cross checking), 7:08; Abdelkader, DET (slashing), 10:36; Joslin, SJ
(elbowing), 14:17; Couture, SJ (roughing), 17:37; Thornton, SJ (holding),
19:13. |
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| 2nd period - Mayers, SJ
(holding), 10:25; Holmstrom, DET (goaltender interference), 12:59. |
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| 3rd period - Filppula,
DET (high sticking), 2:36; Franzen, DET (charging), 12:09; Wallin, SJ
(interference), 16:54. |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Niemi |
27 |
25 |
| DET - Howard |
35 |
30 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
9 |
12 |
14 |
35 |
| DET |
16 |
6 |
5 |
27 |
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| Referees: L'Ecuyer,
Jackson. Linesmen: Barton, Cormier. |
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