Three goals in a span of 79 seconds in the first period by the
San Jose Sharks began the scoring in the first game of the Stanley
Cup Western Conference semifinals on Thursday at soldout HP
Pavilion.
SAN JOSE
Three goals in a span of 79 seconds in the first period by the San Jose Sharks began the scoring in the first game of the Stanley Cup Western Conference semifinals on Thursday at soldout HP Pavilion.
And all of this without Patrick Marleau, scratched from the lineup and listed as day-to-day by the Sharks organization.
Detroit came back to within one goal twice, but the Sharks held on to take a 4-3 victory over the Red Wings.
“We haven’t won a Game 1 in here in a long time,” Joe Thornton said.
San Jose was 0-3 in home openers over the past two seasons, last winning a home opener on May 7, 2006 (2-1 over Edmonton).
The Sharks, fresh off a four-day break since defeating Colorado 4-2 in the quarterfinals, turned three of their first eight shots on net into goals to lead 3-0 with 10:24 gone in the first period.
“A couple of days off was real big,” Dany Heatley said.
The game’s first power play, due to a slash by Red Wing Valtteri Filppula at 8:47, led to a 1-0 San Jose lead 18 seconds later.
Joe Pavelski, San Jose’s goal-scoring leader in the first round with five, won the face-off and regained control of the puck from Dan Boyle. Pavelski missed wide right from the right circle, then pounced on a long rebound and moved to his left before ripping a shot inside the left post past Howard at 9:05.
The cushion grew to two goals by the 10:01 mark. Thornton’s stick was held by Wing Andreas Lilja at the Detroit endboards. As the delayed penalty loomed, Thornton pulled away from the hold, found the puck and skated around the net. Thornton fed a streaking Heatley in the low slot. Heatley deftly tapped the puck past Howard for his first goal of the playoffs.
“I saw Heater out of the corner of my eye,” Thornton said. “He’s not going to miss those shots often.”
Only 23 more seconds had elapsed before San Jose owned a 3-0 edge. The Pavelski line produced the goal. Pavelski, while falling in the slot, pulled a pass to his left to Devin Setoguchi for a one-timer past Howard at 10:24.
San Jose had a 3-0 record when scoring at least three goals in the first round this year.
Detroit responded with the game’s next two goals.
Defenseman Jonathan Ericsson pulled the puck out of a crowd along the sideboards in the San Jose zone and whipped a pass to an unmarked Dan Cleary at the left post for the tap-in at 11:40 of the first period.
The scoring frenzy slowed in the second period. Detroit notched the period’s lone goal — Johan Franzen’s 20-footer from the inside edge of the left circle off a feed from Pavel Datsyuk.
The Sharks earned some breathing room 50 seconds into the third period by converting a 5-on-3 power play. The second penalty setting up the 5-on-3 was a high-sticking call on Filppula.
“That was a slash, but don’t lie on the ice and embellish it,” Detroit coach Mike Babcock said of Setoguchi’s action.
Pavelski skated to an open spot to the left of the Detroit net, then accepted Boyle’s pass from the high slot and pulled a shot through Howard’s pads for his second goal of the night.
“We had some good looks (on the 5-on-3) and Pavs made a great shot,” Heatley said.
Detroit was equal to the task and scored at 2:57 to make it a one-goal difference. Rafalski skated down the slot and turned a Datsyuk pass into a sharp shot past Nabokov for his first goal of the playoffs.
