DETROIT, Mich. – Devin Setoguchi scored his third goal of the game to give the Sharks a 4-3 win in game three to take a 3-0 game stranglehold lead over Detroit. All three games in the series have been decided by one goal.
Detroit came out strong at the start of the first period, but Sharks goalie Antti Niemi came up big, to keep Detroit out of the net. The teams then traded power play goals. Devin Setoguchi opened the scoring at 12:57 of the first, while Darren Helm was serving a high sticking penalty. Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski assisted on the goal. Detroit took advantage of a penalty by Ian White in the final minute of the period to score their own power play goal. Nicklas Lindstrom sent a backhand shot past Niemi with only 22 seconds remaining in the opening period to tie the score. Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom assisted on the goal.
Detroit continued to pressure the Sharks at the start of the second period and their hard work finally paid off when Patrick Eaves put the Red Wings in the lead with a backhander past Niemi at the 13:59 mark of the period. Helm and Kris Draper earned assists on the goal. The back and forth game continued as Devin Setoguchi scored his second power play goal of the game less than a minute later. Setoguchi fired a change-up slap shot past Jimmy Howard at 14:49 of the period to again even up the score. Thornton earned his second assist of the game on the goal. Dan Boyle also assisted on Setoguchi’s goal. Detroit took the momentum back on another late goal in the period when Pavel Datsyuk scored another power play goal at 18:17 of the second period. With Sharks goal scorer Devin Setoguchi in the box serving a holding penalty Datsyuk fired a wrist shot past Niemi. Zetterberg and Lindstrom assisted on the play to earn their second points of the game.
The Sharks tied the game late in the third period, when Boyle out-waited Howard to put a high shot past the Detroit goalie. Boyle received a pass in the slot from Kyle Wellwood and held onto the puck and with Howard sprawled on the ice, Boyle shot the puck high in the net to even things up. Torrey Mitchell also assisted on the Boyle goal. The Sharks survived a late Detroit flurry to send the game into overtime.
Setoguchi was able to redeem himself after taking a penalty in the overtime session to put Detroit on the power play. The Red Wings were unable to score with the man advantage, but kept the pressure on San Jose, after the Sharks returned to full strength. Niemi again saved the day, as Detroit outshot the Sharks 7-3 in the extra period. Thornton out-battled Jonathan Ericsson for the puck and spun around to feed a pass to Setoguchi who snapped off a wrist shot to beat Howard at 9:21 of the overtime period.
The Setoguchi hat-trick was the first in playoffs by the Sharks since Patrick Marleau’s in 2006.
The Sharks will try to finish the series when they again visit Joe Louis Arena on Friday night.
Contact the writer at Jack.Lima@prohockeynews.com
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