March 4, 2011
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Red Wings have been going good lately. But in the Western Conference, no team is hotter than San Jose Sharks are right now.
The Wings became the Sharks' latest victim Thursday, losing 3-1.
About a month ago, there was doubt the Sharks would even make the playoffs. But after Thursday's win, the Sharks (38-21-6, 82 points) are on a 17-2-1 run over their last 20 games, have won eight consecutive games and are closing in on the second-place Wings (39-19-7, 85 points) in the Western Conference.
"We know we're still a good team and they're good team (too)," defenseman Brad Stuart said. "They're playing real well right now. They've definitely played well against us and seem to get up against us."
The Sharks, who eliminated the Wings in five games in the playoffs last season, have won this season's series, 3-1.
The Wings dropped their second straight game (0-1-1) and are 2-1-1 on this five-game trip, which winds up Saturday in Phoenix.
"Anytime you play back-to-back nights, you know the other team is going to come out flying," coach Mike Babcock said. "We were on back-to-back nights. and we did a lot of good things."
Tomas Holmstrom (power play) scored for the Wings' lone goal.
Dany Heatley scored twice for the Sharks, one of those a power play goal that broke a 1-1 tie at 3:54 of the second period. He redirected a slap pass from Joe Pavelski past goalie Joey MacDonald for his 22nd goal of the season.
"Positionally strong, skated well, created opportunities to score, went to the net," said Sharks coach Todd McLellan of Heatley, who was tough to contain. "It's a pretty good recipe for him."
The Sharks pushed the lead to 3-1 when Patrick Marleau scored one of the all-time blooper goals of the season.
Marleau and Jonathan Ericsson went rushing for the puck, MacDonald came out to play it, but as MacDonald whacked at it, the puck batted off either the stick of Ericsson or Marleau and fluttered into the net at 15:48 of the third period.
"The three of us got there at the same time," MacDonald said. "I got there first and shot it, and I don't know if it hit our defenseman, or their guy, but it went into the net. One of those bounces."
Said Babcock: "Unfortunate, that bounce there. I thought we were going to tie it up. In the end, that third goal made it harder."
Both teams were 1 for 3 on the power play. But overall, the Wings would have preferred to have generated more traffic in front of Sharks goalie Antti Niemi (26 saves).
Too often, the Wings played on the perimeter and made life a little easier for Niemi.
"The last couple of games we scored a goal each (game)," Nicklas Lidstrom said. "We have to do a better job of driving to the net."
