Dany Heatley leads San Jose Sharks to 3-1 win over Detroit Red Wings
Dany Heatley lit the lamp twice and Antti Niemi stopped 26 shots, as the San Jose Sharks cruised to a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, at HP Pavilion on Thursday night.
Patrick Marleau tallied an insurance goal in the final Stanza for San Jose, who have won eight consecutive games and have not dropped any on home ice since 13 January.
Tomas Holmstrom scored for Detroit, who are one of the league's best road teams, but have dropped their last two games as visitors. Goalie Joey MacDonald surrendered all three goals on 28 shots.
San Jose came out strongly and opened the scoring nearly four minutes in when Heatley chipped in a rebound past MacDonald to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead. Detroit, though, found an equaliser near the end of the first period. Mike Modano fired a shot from just
above the left circle, and Holmstrom’s deflection beat Niemi for his 14th goal of the season.
In the fourth minute of the middle stanza, Heatley put San Jose ahead with his second goal on the power-play. Joe Thornton dished out a pass to the top of the crease to Heatley, who tucked the puck into the open net.
Sharks Head Coach Todd McLellan was pleased with his side’s performance. He said, “We’re satisfied right now. [Detroit] is a measuring tool, so it's gratifying getting the points."
San Jose kept the pressure on during the final frame, forcing the Detroit net-minder to make several spectacular saves. However, MacDonald finally snapped under pressure when he came out of his net to try to clear a dump pass. With Marleau barreling down
on him, MacDonald failed to clear the disc and Marleau got enough on it to send it into the cage for a 3-1 lead, with less than five minutes remaining in the final period.
Heatley missed a hat-trick when he somehow managed to shoot wide of an open net with less than one minute to play. Niemi had to stop only five shots in the third period to seal the victory.
Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock was not disappointed with his team’s performance despite the defeat. He said, “The bottom line is we have to skate better than we did tonight as a group. Our big guys in particular have to skate better, but they played hard minutes
last night. But I wasn’t disappointed in our effort tonight.”
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