After taking an early 1-0 lead on a goal from Tim Heed, his second of the season, the San Jose Sharks let the Detroit Red Wings take control of the game with three unanswered goals.
Darren Helm, Gustav Nyquist and Mike Green scored for the Wings who seemingly had control of the game in the second period.
Joe Pavelski had a natural hat trick in win over Detroit – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
But the Sharks snapped out of their listlessness and struck for four goals in response for a 5-3 win in Detroit.
“I thought we had some opportunities in that stretch, but we weren’t turning them into shots,” Detroit head coach Jeff Blashill said, We probably needed to shoot a little more, but we also spent way too much time just trying to get out of our end to get a change.”
Aaron Dell recovered from the brief let down and made 20 saves for the win.
“The Red Wings have a lot of speed and skill, and they were all over us in the first period,” Heed said. “In the second and third periods, we tried to focus on taking away their time and space.”
Joe Pavelski closed out the scoring in the game with a natural hat trick.
“We didn’t play well last night against Columbus (4-0 loss) and we didn’t have a good first period tonight,” Pavelski said. “That’s why it was important for us to respond the way we did in the last two periods tonight.”
The Sharks improved to 37-18-8 and are within three points of the Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division; the Flames beat the Ottawa Senators Sunday, 2-1.
“We didn’t start the game well, but we talked about it after the first period and the guys went out there and fixed it,” Sharks head coach Peter DeBoer said. “That’s the reason this is such a great group to work with, they don’t need to be told over and over what’s wrong. They know what they need to do.”
Brent Burns also scored for the Sharks.
“[Burns is] having a Norris Trophy-level season for us, and he was a huge factor tonight.” DeBoer added. “His goal turned around the game and then he sets things up on the power play.”
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Red Wings highlights]
Jonathan Bernier made 32 saves in the loss.
Filip Zadina made his NHL debut for the Red WIngs.
“Hopefully I’ll get another chance to play in our next game and things will go better,” Zadina said. “We had a great first period, but the rest wasn’t as good.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.