2010 NHL Playoffs: San Jose Takes Strangle Hold on Red Wings

The San Jose Sharks are one win away from playing in the Western Conference Final for the first time in six years.

The last time the Sharks went that deep into the post season, they lost in six games to the Calgary Flames, who in turn lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

It certainly looked last night that the Red Wings were in position to cut the Sharks series lead in half with Tomas Holmstrom and Dan Cleary scoring in the first before San Jose's Devin Setogouchi snapped one past Jimmy Howard with just four seconds left in the opening period.

The second period saw very little in the way of scoring, or shooting for that matter with each team registering only seven shots. It was the Red Wings though that would hit the score sheet again with Hendrik Zetterberg putting his seventh of the playoffs past Nabakov from almost on the goal line.

Twenty-one year old Logan Couture scored his third and "Jumbo" Joe scored his second in as many games to tie things up in the third and send the game to overtime.

Overtime arrived and in front of a relatively quiet crowd at Joe Louis Arena, Jonathan Ericsson blast at San Jose net minder Evgeni Nabakov but missed by a mile. The shot went all the way around the end boards a caught that surprised Joe Thornton who had just come off of the bench and in a two one one with Patrick Marleau made a perfect slap pass to his line mate who made no mistake and won the game for the Sharks.

The Red Wings haven't been swept in a series since 2003, when they lost four in a row to the Anaheim Ducks in the opening round.

"The reality is we've dug a huge hole for us here," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "You win the next one, that's all you can do," said Brian Rafalski "Can't focus on anything beyond that."

No matter how you slice it, the Sharks look poised to take the series Thursday night in Detroit. While I would never count the Red Wings out until they are actually out.

I mean, they do have about an 8.7 percent chance of coming back to win the series.