Detroit Red Wings edge past San Jose Sharks 4-3 - NHL Play-off Recap
Goalie Jimmy Howard turned away 39 shots and Detroit Red Wings notched three third-period goals to defeat the second-seed San Jose Sharks 4-3, in Game 5 of their Western Conference semi-finals, avoiding elimination once again.
Down 3-1 in the series and 3-1 in the contest, Detroit got goals from three players within ten minutes of the end of the match. Tomas Holmstrom broke a tie while Danny Cleary and Jonathan Ericsson also lit the lamp in the final moments to force the Game
6 in Detroit.
The sharks currently hold a 3-2 series lead after winning the first three contests.
San Jose Head Coach Todd McLellan was not disappointed despite the defeat. He said, “The message that I heard in the locker room from the guys and the leaders of our team was, “You know what? It’s behind us, now we have to move on. Keep your heads and get
ready to play again.”
Devin Setoguchi and Joe Pavelski both scored goals for a 2-0 advantage and Logan Couture's goal gave the Sharks a 3-1 lead early in the final period.
However, the Sharks softened in front of goalie Antti Niemi, who stopped 18 shots in the contest and saved only 3-of-6 shots he faced in the final period.
"Hard to swallow," said Todd McLellan. "They took advantage of some of our mistakes and put it in the net.”
Couture got behind several players of the Red Wings and whipped a back-hander under the left pad of Howard to make it 3-1 just less than a minute into the final period.
"You're thinking, 'It's going to be tough.' But we answered back," said Detroit Head Coach Mike Babcock.
The third-seed Red Wings responded quickly, tying the game in just 1:46 of the third period.
Ericsson jammed home a loose puck from the slot, and Cleary equalised the contest at 3-3 by squeezing the puck under Niemi's left pad from behind the net in the sixth minute.
The game remained tied for nearly nine minutes until Pavel Datsyuk, who dished out three helpers for Detroit, scored the go-ahead goal.
Datsyuk sent the puck back to the point, where Nicklas Lidstrom threw a shot on net. Holmstrom then caught a piece of the slap-shot, giving the Red Wings a 4-3 margin with less than five minutes to play.
Setoguchi got San Jose on the board with less than three minutes left in the opening period, when he set up in front of the net and deflected a pass from Dan Boyle past Howard to make it 1-0.
The Sharks then took a 2-0 lead on a goal from Pavelski in the 16th minute of the middle period. The goal came when Ryane Clowe sent the puck in front of the net where Pavelski banged it home.
Less than a minute later, the Red Wings trimmed their deficit to 2-1 when Niklas Kronwall fired a shot through traffic in the net from the right side.
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