Detroit Red Wings top San Jose Sharks 3-1 – NHL Play-off Recap
Valtteri Filppula scored the game-deciding goal in the final period and goal-tender Jimmy Howard stopped 24 shots, as the Detroit Red Wings took a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 6 of their Western Conference semi-finals at Joe Louis Arena on
Tuesday night.
The Red Wings have become the eighth National Hockey League team to force the decisive seventh game, after starting the second-round series with three consecutive losses.
"To be honest, I didn't think we should have been down 0-3, we could have won them all, but so could they," Red Wings Head Coach Mike Babcock said. "That's how tight this has been."
Henrik Zetterberg and Darren Helm each lit the lamp for the Red Wings, who forced Game 7 after trailing 3-0 in the series.
Logan Couture posted the lone goal for San Jose, which is in danger of wasting a 3-0 series lead. Goalie Antti Niemi played well in the loss, turning aside 42-of-44 shots.
Game 7 is scheduled for Thursday in San Jose. The winner will face the Vancouver Canucks in the conference finals beginning Sunday.
"Just ask the Red Wings. They dropped three straight games and their confidence was not frayed," Sharks Captain Joe Thornton said when asked if his side’s confidence took a hit after losing three in a row. "We're a confident group, still. You work 82 games
to get home ice in these Game 7s. Now we just have to make it work."
In spite of an 18-6 shot advantage, the Red Wings were unable to dent Sharks’ goalie in the opening period. Detroit suffered more bad luck in the middle.
In the seventh minute of the middle period, Red Wings’ Danny Cleary wasted the best opportunity by misfiring when it seemed easier to score. He made a nice move around Niemi during a short-handed breakaway but hit the side of the net with goalie down and
out.
Detroit’s Tomas Holmstrom missed another opportunity at an open net on a power-play in the final moments of the second period.
The Sharks got on the board in the fourth minute of the final period. The goal occurred when Couture whacked in a rebound off a shot from Dany Heatley for 1-0 lead. The goal was reviewed and upheld.
Sharks’ defenseman Douglas Murray said after the game, "We put out an embarrassing effort. It's about whatever it takes to get yourself ready (to win)."
Zetterberg deflected a shot in the ninth minute of the third period, which Niemi blocked by stacking his pads at the left post to keep the sharks ahead 1-0.
Henrik tied the game at 1-1 with less than ten minutes to play when he got in front of the net and deflected a shot from Niklas Kronwall past Niemi.
The Red Wings went up 2-1 less than two minutes later. The goal came when Pavel Datsyuk centred a pass to Filppula, who banged the puck home.
The Red Wings killed off a penalty from Justin Abdelkader with less than seven minutes remaining and San Jose benched its goal-tender with less than a minute to play, but Helm added an empty-net tally in the final moments of the play.
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