San Jose Sharks beat Detroit Red Wings, 2-1: NHL Play-off Recap
Benn Ferriero lit the lamp into extra session to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 2-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings in Game 1 of their Western Conference semi-final series, the HP Pavilion
on Friday night.
Joe Pavelski also scored a goal and Antti Niemi turned away 24 shots for San Jose, which knock down the Red Wings in five games in the semi-finals last season and advanced to the semi-finals
this year with a six-game defeat of the Los Angeles Kings in the first round.
The Sharks have won its fourth straight overtime game of this post-season. Dan Boyle assisted twice to pick up the win.
"You never know who the hero is going to be, You never know where it's going to come from. That's just a prime example of just shooting, just putting it at the net in overtime. That was a
huge game 'cause we needed to win this game and start the series on the right note," said San Jose's defender, Dan Boyle. "We could have got frustrated, which would have turned into mistakes, but we stuck with it and we're all feeling really good."
Nicklas Lidstrom was the lone scorer for Detroit, which swept the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round. Jimmy Howard was strong between the pipes, but came up just short in the loss, stopping
44 shots.
Detroit drew the first blood just 9 ½ minutes into the opening period, when Pavel Datsyuk swept a pass from the left boards to the slot, where Lidstrom ripped a one- timer that beat Niemi
low to the glove side.
The second period remained scoreless. Howard made 27 saves through the first two periods and helped Red Wings kill off several the Sharks’ power-plays.
However, boarding call on Todd Bertuzzi just less than ten minutes into the final period led to the tying goal on Sharks’ third power-play. It happened so when Joe Thornton blasted a big
shot from just inside the blue line that was saved by Howard, who was unable to control the rebound. Pavelski then slammed the rebound down out of midair with his stick and into the net for a 1-1 tie and sent the game into overtime.
"You always have to be ready," said Ferriero. "You never know when they are going to call on you. You go through practice and do everything you can to be ready to play. When your number gets
called you have to be ready."
Ferriero finally iced the win at 2-1 just seven minutes into the extra session. Skating in his first play-off game on his 24th birthday, Ferriero controlled the puck at the left board and
from the top of the circle he fired a shot on the net that hit off Red Wings’ defender, Brad Stuart’s stick and went into the net.
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