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Red Wings force game seven in San Jose |
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The Detroit Red Wings have gone and done the unthinkable and become just the eighth team in NHL history to force a seventh game after trailing 3-0 in a series.
The Sharks looked like they were in control of the Western Conference semi-finals against the Red Wings but you can never count out the past champs. The Red Wings hoisted the Cup back in 2008 and they still have their nucleus from that team in place.
Going into Joe Louis Arena the Sharks played their third game in a row where they had an opportunity to move on to the conference finals against the waiting Vancouver Canucks. The problem is the Red Wings just don’t go away. They were down two goals in the third period in game five and came back by scoring three. Tonight was somewhat different in that they were tied at zeros going into the final frame but as opposed to last game, the Red Wings were the better team after forty minutes. Like game five played on Sunday in San Jose, Detroit lit the lamp three times in the third period, albeit the final goal of the game was scored on an empty net. If you take that one away it would mean that all six games in this series have been decided by one goal.
Tonight the Sharks wasted an outstanding effort by their goaltender Antti Niemi who stood on his head all night.
Coach Todd McLellan commented on Niemi’s effort after the game “We were fortunate our goaltender even gave us a chance to be remotely involved in the game in the third period.”
He got a couple of breaks when Dan Cleary had him beat and missed the two feet of open net as well as Jason Demers got the shaft of his stick on another open opportunity, but besides that Niemi came out with the performance that was expected of him. His lateral movement was great and he stood large in his net. Niemi didn’t appear to be intimidated by the Red Wings snipers and you have to be good to be lucky.
The third Detroit goal was controversial because the replay showed that the Red Wings should have been called for too many men on the ice which would have meant that the goal didn’t count and the Sharks would have been on the power play for the remaining sixty-five seconds. Bad call by the officials yes. That still doesn’t take away from the fact that the Red Wings came out hard and the storm for them lasted almost sixty minutes. The Red Wings were the better team tonight and deserved to force another game. In many situations like tonight the home team comes out hard and then their play levels off. The visitors have to weather the storm until the game settles in. Tonight aside for a few shifts in the third period where the Shark’s Logan Couture scored the only goal for San Jose, Detroit kept the thunder and lightning coming.
The Sharks are a team, who according to many in the hockey world have underachieved in the playoffs and you have to wonder how losing three elimination games in a row is going to affect the psyche of this team. San Jose lost last year in the Conference finals and were one of four teams remaining to win the Stanley Cup which by most standards isn’t bad, but in San Jose the expectations have become higher. The Sharks lost to the eventual Cup champions the Chicago Blackhawks which softens the blow a little, but they lost four straight. If Detroit is victorious on Thursday night then the Sharks will have been eliminated from the playoffs two years in a row by losing four straight games. Add that to the recent history of underachieving in the postseason and this team may never mentally recover. Win on thursday and it is a couple of days rest and on to Vancouver as though seven games was in the cards all along.
Coach McLellan was asked about the confidence level of the Sharks “Each player has a tool kit, he has a skill set that he has to bring to the rink, and then he has a commitment level he has to bring to the rink and we should feel good about ours; individually and collectively we should feel good about it too.”
When asked about the play of Patrick Marleau Todd responded with these comments “We need him to play effectively shift in and shift out. He is going to have the stage now. A lot of our players are going to have the stage in game seven. They’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way. They have been taught a lot of lessons along the way. The stage will be theirs and it’s an opportunity for them to answer the bell.”
I thought Coach McLellan handled the post-game press conference well and put the onus on his players to get the job done in game seven. He expressed confidence in his team and if you read between the lines he is saying that it is up to the boys wearing black in game seven. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
Neutral zone turnovers cost the Sharks dearly tonight. Logan Couture gave the puck up at center ice and was unable to recover on the back check which led to the Red Wings go ahead goal.
The Sharks found some energy in the third period when the forward lines were put back to the way they have been for most of the playoffs minus Ryan Clowe’s presence who missed the game with an upper body injury. Logan Couture scored the only goal for San Jose at 3:54 of the period. For the next few shifts it looked as though the Sharks may come away with the win. The momentum was short lived because Henrik Zetterberg tipped in a Niklas Kronwall point shot and less than two minutes later Valteri Filppula took advantage of a turnover and scored to make the score 2-1.
The Red Wings were missing Johan Franzen tonight who is a key part of the puzzle for Detroit, but not as big of a piece of the puzzle as Ryan Clowe is for the Sharks. Going into tonight’s game Clowe was the Shark’s, and the NHL’s scoring leader in the playoffs. He was actually tied with Pavel Datsyuk who assisted on the Red Wings second goal to take the playoff lead. Clowe’s absence from the line-up had a trickle down affect for the Sharks. They moved Torrey Mitchell up to the second line and Ben Ferriero up to the third. Marleau was moved to the middle of the second line and Logan Couture was placed on the wing with Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi. So instead of changing the personnel on one line they changed it on all four lines. The Marleau move is understandable and worked earlier in the season when they played Detroit. The coaching staff wanted a bigger body on the second line and putting Marleau at center gave him an opportunity to get more involved in the game.
The obvious that we learned tonight is how big of a role Ryan Clowe plays on this team. He is a big physical body up front with good hands and is a playoff performer. If he is unable to go in game seven the Sharks will be behind the eight ball before the puck drops.
Contenders
Antti Niemi – posted a .955 save percentage tonight and was awarded the game’s second star for his efforts. He gave his team a chance to win when they were outshot 45-25 and stepped up his play after a poor performance in game five.
Valteri Filppula – showed up in this series with a goal and an assist tonight. Better late than never.
Pavel Datsyuk – again makes our list. He only had one assist but only a few people in the world could have made the saucer pass off his back hand the way he did through Ian White and Logan Couture on to Filppula’s stick for the game winning goal.
Douglas Murray – set the physical tone early with two big hits on Dan Cleary and everyone wearing red knew when he was on the ice after that. He finished the night even in the plus/minus category.
Pretenders
The Sharks power play – were pretenders tonight. In the games San Jose has won they are 4-15 with the man advantage. In the games they have lost including tonight the power play has gone 0-10. They have had some decent looks and some pressure but not enough. It is time to change things up and do something different.
Logan Couture – gave up the puck in the neutral zone which led to the game winning goal. On that play on the back check he and Ian White went to Datsyuk which left Filppula alone going to the net. He did score the only Sharks goal but unfortunately the negative overshadowed the positive.
Worth Noting
This is the eighth time in history that a team has come from down three games to force a game seven. The Vancouver Canucks were in the same boat the Sharks are currently in when they played Chicago in the first round of this year’s playoffs. The Canucks went on to win game seven in overtime and await the winner of this series.
Things got chippy at the end of the game but don’t expect that to carry over to game seven. There is too much on the line and these teams will be focused on the task at hand.
The turning point in this game may have been shortly after the Sharks opened the scoring Joe Paveslki hit the post on an odd man rush. If Joe could have netted that one the momentum would have dramatically changed.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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