The Sharks kicked of a 5-game road trip with a
stop in the Motor City on Tuesday night. San Jose received goal scoring for 6
different skaters to snap the Detroit Red Wings 7-game winning streak. The Red
Wings were vying to set a league high for consecutive wins this season, but the
Sharks had other plans. San Jose scored a pair of 1st period goals and then
fended off several comeback attempts by the Red Wings to start the trip in the
win column.
Much maligned goaltender Alexander Georgiev earned the
victory with a solid performance in net. The netminder allowed three goals, but
was nails late as the Red Wings tried to mount a final push in the 3rd period.
The Sharks flipped the script on their last match-up with the Red
Wings by scoring first. Jan Rutta uncorked a long shot from the right point
that slipped past goaltender Ville Husso. The Sharks drew Husso over to cover
the right side of the net, allowing Rutta to catch the inside of the left post
past Husso's extended glove hand.
Mario Ferraro did the one thing the
Sharks didn't want to do, which was to take a penalty at 15:42. The Red Wings
have elevated themselves to the second best power play unit in the NHL, to
staying out of the box should have been a priority for San Jose.
Luckily for them, William Eklund turned the tables on the Red Wings, when he
grabbed a puck at center ice. He was cut off by a pair of Detroit defenders,
but he saw Nico Sturm racing up the ice on the off wing. Veering to his right
to grab the puck the puck, he flipped a backhand feed back toward the center of
the rink where Sturm grabbed it and raced in on Husso.
A head fake to
the right and a move to the left forced Husso to split his pads which allowed
Sturm to fire a shot between them, finding the back of the net for his 5th goal
of the season.
Detroit struck quickly to open the 2nd period when
Vladimir Tarasenko punched home a deflection from the slot after Simon
Edvinsson bounced a shot off the side of the net. The puck kicked right out to
Tarasenko who directed it inside the right post in th eblicnk of an eye.
Ty Dellandrea was called for tripping 3:12 to put the Sharks in
another precarious position. San Jose would get through the 2 minutes unscathed
with strong work in front of Georgiev.
Macklin Celebrini had the best
look at the Red Wings net in the period when he found himself with the puck out
in front of Husso. The rookie put a pair of shot on net in succession from in
tight.
The not-so-rookieish rookie picked things up to start the 3rd
period by skating the puck out of the right corner and sending a bullet pass to
Eklund on the far side for a slam dunk goal. Celebrini's pass cut through the
crease so quickly that Husso either never saw it or was too late to try and get
a stick on it. The goal was Eklund's 10th of the season, giving him 33 points
on the season. .
Tarasenko scored his second of the night, which was
almost identical to his earlier tally. Erik Gustafsson fired a shot that
bounced off the end board, kicking out to the spot where Tarasenko scored his
first goal. The Russian forward's lightning quick hands, put the puck past
Georgiev before the Sharks goaltender could even react.
Albert
Johansson was sent off for hooking at 6:50 to give the Sharks their first power
play of the game. Celebrini would find Mikael Granlund as the veteran sliced
toward the right post. Granlund faked out Husso with a move to his right before
lifting the puck home for the power play goal.
Detroit responded once
again when Lucas Raymond converted off a set play following a faceoff win in
the Sharks zone.
The Sharks pushed their lead back to 2 goals 61
seconds later when Tyler Toffoli converted his 16th goal of the season. The
Sharks forward collected an Eklund feed on the left side and put the puck past
Husso from a tight angle.
The Red Wings pulled Husso with 3 minutes to
play trailing by a pair. Mario Ferraro grabbed a loose puck deep in his own
zone and sent it the length of the ice for the empty-net goal to cap the
scoring.
The victory also allowed the Sharks to sweep the season
series with Detroit.
Game Notes: * Marc-Edouard Vlasic
and Alexander Wennberg returned to the Sharks lineup. San Jose sent defenseman
Shakir Mukhamadullin to the San Jose Barracuda.
* Klim Kostin and
Nikolai Kovalenko did not travel with the team.
* Red Wings forward
Tyler Motte caught an edge toward the end of the 2nd period and went face first
into the end boards behind the Sharks goal. He would require attention and was
helped to the dressing room.
* William Eklund finished with a 3- point
night (1 goal, 2 assists), and Tyler Toffoli (1 goal, 1 assist) and Macklin
Celebrini (2 assists) finished with 2-point games.
* Alexandar
Georgiev turned in his best performance as a Shark since being acquired in the
Mackenzie Blackwood trade. The netminder finished with 25 saves to earn his 2nd
win in teal.