San Jose wins another overtime game

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Ben Ferriero celebrated his 24th birthday in a special way, as he scored his first ever play-off game in overtime, to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead over Detroit in the first game of the Western Conference Semi-Finals, with a final score of 2-1.
After ousting the Phoenix Coyotes in a four game sweep, a well-rested Detroit Red Wings squad looked to revenge last year’s playoff loss to the San Jose Sharks. San Jose dominated the regular-season games between the two teams, winning three of four games.
Red Wings Captain Nicklas Lidstrom opened the scoring at 9:30 of the first period when he snapped a shot past the glove side of Antti Niemi. After Pavel Datsyuk controlled the puck along the boards, he fed a perfect pass in the slot to Lidstrom, which he quickly converted into a goal.
Early in the second period, San Jose applied continuous pressure on Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, who turned back numerous shots during the San Jose flurry. The Sharks outshot the Wings 18-8 in the period, but could not solve Howard.   Detroit responded late in the period with several quality scoring chances.
The Sharks finally broke through on the scoring column, to tie the score when Joe Pavelski batted in a rebound at 10:22 of the third period. With Todd Bertuzzi in the penalty box serving a boarding penalty, Joe Thornton fired a slap shot towards Howard, which rebounded up in the air in front of the crease. Pavelski was sitting on the door step and batted the puck out of the air, past the Detroit goalie. Thornton along with Dan Boyle assisted on the power-play goal. Howard made a game saving stop in the final minute of the game on a tipped shot from Ian White to send the game to overtime.
Both teams had excellent scoring chances in the opening minutes of the overtime. Detroit had just killed off a four minute high sticking penalty to Justin Abdelkader when Ferriero fired a wrist shot towards the Detroit goal that deflected off the stick of Red Wings defenseman Brad Stuart and found its way to the back of the net. Logan Couture and Dan Boyle assisted on the winning goal.
Four of San Jose’s five victories in the 2010-11 Stanley Cup play-offs have come in overtime.
Game two is scheduled at the HP Pavilion on Sunday afternoon.
Contact the writer and photographer at Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com