San Jose Sharks Dominant in Season Series Clincher Vs. Detroit Red Wings

The San Jose Sharks came into action last night against the perennial powerhouse Detroit Red Wings on the heels of a miracle win against the Colorado Avalanche where Joe Thornton made a one in a million deflection to tie a then 1-0 game in the final minutes where the Sharks won it in overtime.

No such miracle were needed this time around as San Jose jumped on its Western Conference rival early and sustained the pressure for the full 60 minutes of hockey.

Detroit's netminder Joey MacDonald, who got a rare start in this matchup of division leaders, looked shaky handling the puck early on.

His indecisiveness behind the net led to an early chance in the game's first minute on a shot by Justin Braun from the right point that Howard scrambled back into the net and made a sliding save on.

This pressure would build in the opening minutes of the contest however and Dany Heatley would break the goose egg early on, capitalizing on a rebound to put The Sharks up 1-0.

On the play, a cycle and strong board play saw Patrick Marleau wheeling out of the corner with the puck towards the blue line with two Red Wings in chase.

Marleau then drove to the center of the ice at the blue line and dropped the puck off to recently acquired Ian White at the right point.  Both pursuing Red Wings got mixed up and stayed with Marleau, who no longer had the puck.

Ian White had a clear lane from him and a stack of men jockeying for position mere feet from the goal crease.

White fluttered a wrist shot ankle high and Heatley got a stick on it, coaxing the puck off the pads of a butterflying Joey MacDonald and to the side of the net where Heatley pounded in what was at that point an uncontested goal.

It was truly poetry in motion and the Red Wings got a taste of their own medicine as it is traditionally they (Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg) who pull the misdirection on the Sharks while Johan Franzen or Tomas Holmstrom bang it in from close.

Well the Red Wings got right to that plan on a power play that was vintage Red Wings.  Vintage, if not for any other reason, that it involved cheating.

Nicklas Lidstrom fed fellow Swede Niklas Kronwall at the right hash mark early in a power play.  Kromwall coasted in toward the net measuring his shot.

Meanwhile, Johan Franzen who is nicknamed the mule for no other reason than he looks like a total ass, cut through the crease driving Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi back from his angle.  Then, like a dumb stubborn mule, Franzen stayed in the crease.

Same old Franzen, always cheating. 

This time the ref caught him though, as Kromwall lasered home a beautiful shot into the top of the net that was immediately waved off for Franzen's illegal play.

Everyone on the Red Wings bench was standing in disappointment, as the reality hit that they finally got caught for one their many cheating ways.

Detroit's net play would provide them with their first and only goal however, as a tricky deflection by Tomas Holmstrom off of a shot by Shark killer Mike Modano tied the game at 1-1 at 18:19 of the first period on the power play.

At the end of the first period, one thing was evident in this game.  And that is that the Sharks were on their way to victory.  At one point, the Sharks outshot the Red Wings 10-1 and were demonstrating a focus and a will to dominate that reached a new level in this current string of eight straight victories.

The fact that the winning goal came quickly off of a faceoff early in the second period on a power play showed that the Sharks would miss injured power play quarterback Dan Boyle much less than in the previous game against The Avalanche.

After a hooking penalty to Tomas Homstrom, who earlier played hero on the tying goal for The Wings, Joe Thornton smashed a clean faceoff win in the attacking zone from the right faceoff dot off of the opposite boards.

Joe Pavelski wheeled with the carom with what looked like a shot as two Detroit defensemen went to block it.

Instead, Pavelski rifled a slap pass to Dany Heatley who snuck his way to the front of the crease and deflected home the eventual game winner.

For Dany Heatley to score two goals right when the Sharks needed him to, against a team that has always given the Sharks problems, was an apt return to the goal column for a star player who hadn't recorded a tally in 11 games.

Heatley only missed a hat trick on an empty net shot that sailed just high, although his two goals and stellar defensive play made him the first star in the game.

On a two on one rush for a short handed Red Wings team in the first period, Dany Heatley got on his horse to back check and picked off a pass meant for a potentially sniping penalty killer two yards from the net in perfect stride and wheeled around back on the rush where The Sharks began their attack.

The Sharks didn't score on the play, however it is this kind of hustle and committment from every person on the ice starting with the star players that has the Sharks playing at the top of their game.

The second period was another period of domination for The Sharks.  There was a two minute stretch where a couple of The Sharks lines kept intense pressure in the Detroit zone.

It was not strong board play and grinding it out, it was quick passing and making the Red Wings chase rebounds they couldn't even get to, let alone clear.  It was shot after shot, as the Red Wings scrambled in a way they have rarely scrambled before.

The nail in the coffin however came late in the third as Joey MacDonald indecisive play we saw in the opening minute of the game came back to haunt his team, as if this were some award winning screenplay.

Joe Thornton made an innocently lobbed a puck up ice to clear the defensive zone, avoid an icing, and get a line change.  The lob ended up in a foot race between Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson and lifelong Shark, Patrick Marleau.

Even though Ericsson had position on the play, Marleau kept his motor running which made Detroit's back-up net minder a little skittish.

MacDonald came out to play the puck and shot it into the oncoming players at the left slot jousting for position at full speed.  The puck ricocheted off of God knows who and right back into an unattended net making the final score 3-1, Sharks.

It's every coach's dream to have their team play a full 60 minutes. 

The Sharks played this 60 minutes against a rival with passion and dedication to the defensive side of the game which led to more than enough scoring.

Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi has swept the Detroit Red Wings three straight in his part of the season series, as he continues to be a spike in the Red Wings' wheel that goes back to Niemi's rookie season in Chicago.

Antti Niemi is part of a new Sharks attitude that is making every game the most important game of the season.  Every game is being played like a playoff game and there are no sings of slowing down. The Sharks continue to improve their game day in and day out, whether at home or on the road, as they rise up the standing in a victorious march to the playoffs.