Sharks head to Detroit with a 2-0 lead in the Series

SAN JOSE, Calif. – In a tightly contested game, the San Jose Sharks held off the Detroit Red Wings for a 2-1 victory in game two of the Western Conference Semi-finals.
 
Sharks goalie Antti Niemi had to come up big early when the Sharks took three minor penalties in the first 10 minutes of the first period. Despite being outshot 12-7 in the period, the Sharks managed to strike first on a power play, when Ian White drove a slap shot past Jimmy Howard at 4:54 of the first period. With Justin Abdelkader in the penalty box serving a high sticking call, White was able to launch a hard slap shot that found the back of the net past a screened Howard. Danny Heatley and Ryan Clowe assisted on the goal.
 
Neither team scored in the second period as both teams failed to capitalize on numerous scoring chances. The best chance came early in the period, while on a penalty kill, Detroit‘s Darren Helms stripped the puck from Jason Demers at the blue line and had a clear breakaway, but was stoned by Niemi to keep the Sharks in the lead.
 
The Sharks extended their lead at 1:39 of third period when Niclas Wallin was able to get the puck past Howard. Wallin’s wrist shot bounced off Howard’s glove and into the net to give San Jose a 2-0 lead.
 
Wallin has four career playoff goals and all have been game winners, his three previous postseason goals were overtime winners for the Carolina Hurricanes.
 
Detroit got right back in the contest with their own power play goal at 13:58, when Henrik Zetterberg converted a perfect pass from Pavel Datsyuk, to cut the lead in half. Tomas Holmstrom also assisted on the goal.
 
Niemi, who stopped 33 of 34 shots, was able to hold off the hard charging Red Wings in the final minutes, to earn the game’s first star award and his second-one goal win of the series.
 
The two evenly matched teams head back to Detroit for game three on Wednesday.
 
Contact the writer at Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com