The Detroit Red Wings welcomed the San Jose Sharks for an early-week matchup in Detroit. The two teams were on opposite ends of streaks entering the game, with the Red Wings riding a seven-game win streak while the Sharks entered on a three-game skid. By the end of the night, the Sharks snapped their drought, pulling out a 6-3 victory.
Game Recap
The Sharks twice took advantage of defensive breakdowns by the Red Wings to score the only two goals of the first period. The first goal came less than two minutes into the game when a strong forecheck from Alexander Wennberg forced a Red Wing turnover. The puck ended up in front of Ville Husso for Will Smith, but he failed to cash in, leading to a rebound that ended up getting back to Jan Ruuta at the point, who beat Husso for an early 1-0 Sharks lead. Even with the Red Wings controlling the pace of play for most of the period, the Sharks would add a shorthanded goal in the final two minutes thanks to a breakdown by the Red Wings’ defense in the neutral zone, leading to Nico Sturm finding himself all alone and beating Husso with a strong move on the net. The Sharks held a 2-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes while being outshot 12-6.
The Red Wings continued to control the pace and offensive zone play early on in the second period, leading to Vladimir Tarasenko scoring his first goal in 19 games after Simon Edvinsson’s shot banked off the side of the net, bouncing right to Tarsasenko in the slot. He beat Alexandar Georgiev on a quick shot to reduce the deficit to 2-1. The Sharks got themselves going in the second half of the period, getting numerous chances on Husso, but he stood tall to keep his team within one after two periods of play.
The Sharks cashed in less than a minute into the third, with Macklin Celebrini finding William Eklund with a great pass across the goal line for a wide-open shot backdoor for Eklund to extend the Sharks lead to 3-1. The middle part of the period saw a total of four goals being scored, with two from each team. Tarasenko added his second of the game to make it a 3-2 game before Mikael Granlund (San Jose), Lucas Raymond (Detroit), and Tyler Toffoli (San Jose) went back and forth in three minutes, seeing the Sharks hold a 5-3 lead just under halfway through the period. The Red Wings made a strong push to get within one in the game’s final minutes, but the Sharks held firm to pull off a 6-3 win after Mario Ferraro added an empty-net goal.
Georgiev had a strong showing for the Sharks in the win, stopping 25 of 28 shots. Husso stopped 18 of 23 in his first NHL start since Dec. 14. The Red Wings fell to 20-19-4 and will hit the road on Thursday (Jan. 16) against the Florida Panthers. The Sharks moved to 14-26-6 and will hit the road on Thursday when they head to Columbus to take on the Blue Jackets.
