Sharks-Red Wings: Not Your Average Joes

The San Jose Sharks won a second game over the Detroit Red Wings, 4-3, Sunday night.

All of their scoring has come from two lines, but at least the "other" line scoring in this series is the first: Thus far, Joe Pavelski alone has accounted for a third of Sharks goals and half of their game-winners; his line has accounted for six of the eight goals in this series (Joe Thornton's line has the other two) and over half for the entire playoffs.

In Game One, the Sharks never trailed after a three-goal outburst in the first period set the tone. Game Two was more see-saw, with the Sharks trailing about as much as they led.

The scoring was opened in the first period by Pavel Datsyuk just 6:51 in. He came up with a loose puck and beat a double-team as well as Evgeni Nabokov with a wicked wrist-shot to the top corner.

The Sharks answered with—who else? Joe Pavelski. On a power play just over two minutes later, The Big Pavelski came up with a rebound near the net and slammed it home. On his next shift, he also raced to catch up to a puck, pulled up, and sent a centering feed to Ryane Clowe, who put a nifty backhander between his legs with his back to the net past goalie Jimmy Howard.

Detroit was quick to respond, with Tomas Holmstrom redirecting a shot past Nabokov to tie the score before intermission.

In the second period, the Wings took over the tempo of the game, and Niklas Lidstrom scored just as a power play expired. They were able to hold that lead into the third period, and kept the pressure on with seven early shots.

However, the Sharks got the benefit of a very questionable call on Todd Bertuzzi to go on the power play, and were able to draw a second penalty on Niklas Kronwall because of it. On the ensuing five-on-three, Pavelski again was able to put home a loose puck in front of the net to tie the score.

The go-ahead score also involved some good fortune: Lidstrom wound up for a point shot but broke his stick. Dany Heatley poked the puck behind him from between his feet and got to it before the helpless defender could even turn around.

As he chased down Heater, Thornton raced up the ice on the opposite wing shadowed by Brian Rafalski, and Patrick Marleau pressed the middle. Rafalski took away the passing lane, and Heater's shot caromed off Howard's pad and Rafalski's skate to Thornton's stick for his first goal of the 2010 playoffs.

In Game One, the Sharks did not hold a major edge in shots and struggled a bit in the faceoff circle, but dominated all other stats. Game Two involved a more dominant total in shots on goal (45-31) and faceoffs (43-26), but other stats were close: San Jose had one more blocked shot, the same number of missed shots, was minus-one on giveaway/takeaway ratio, and had five fewer hits.

The Sharks are not out of the woods yet, and there are issues the team still needs to address. To see more on the status of this series, see the companion article at Shark-Infested Blogger.