On Jeremy Roenick's 39th birthday, the San Jose Sharks tussled with the defending Stanley Cup Champions for the outright lead in the Western Conference, and potentially the entire National Hockey League, and defeated the Detroit Red Wings in a 6-5 thriller that can only be described as the most intense regular season game ever played.
There were 3 lead changes in a game that San Jose captain Patrick Marleau, who scored the game winning goal, described as a see-saw match. Dan Boyle scored 3 minutes into the first period after an aggressive forechecking Ryane Clowe got the loose puck to the side of the Detroit net. But a minute later, Valtteri Filppula tied it with his 6th goal of the season. But strong forechecking gave the Sharks the lead again as Milan Michalek made a no-look pass across the zone to Joe Pavelski, who gave San Jose a 2-1 lead to end the first. Detroit came roaring back in a physical, penalty-filled second period. Marian Hossa took a quick shot off a pass from Pavel Datsyuk to tie it 2-2 early in the second on a Detroit power play. Johan Franzen scored 3 minutes later after Datsyuk deked two Sharks defenders to give the Red Wings their first lead of the game 3-2. But San Jose went on a 5 on 3, and although they did not convert with the 2 man advantage, Christian Ehrhoff took a loose puck and blasted it past a large crowd in front of Chris Osgood with seconds left on the 5 on 4 power play to tie it 3-3. Henrik Zetterberg scored a similar goal right off the face off later in the second, finding a loose puck and putting it past Evgeni Nabokov to give Detroit the lead again 4-3. But with a minute left in the second period, Clowe shot a puck that bounced off a Detroit skate and right into Jonathan Cheechoo's stick and into an open net to end the second period with a 4-4 tie. The third period became a much more defensive game, and the only chances for either team came on breakaway chances. Datsyuk took a long pass from Franzen behind both San Jose defenders and tried to put a puck past Nabokov's left side, but the San Jose goaltender kicked it out. After a mad scramble for a puck in San Jose's defensive end, Boyle flipped the puck into the neutral zone, where a streaking Michalek outfought 3 Detroit skaters and rang a shot off the post on a breakaway to give the Sharks the lead 5-4 with 9 minutes left in the game. 3 minutes later, Marleau took a nice pass from Clowe while barely staying onsides, broke past the Detroit defenders and shot it past Osgood again on a breakaway for a 6-4 lead. However, Brian Rafalski put the Red Wings back in the game, putting a hard shot past Nabokov's glove to bring Detroit to within 1 goal with 2 minutes left in the game. San Jose defended against Detroit's extra attacker, including some key saves by Nabokov, and won the game in front of a sold-out-for-2-months HP Pavilion crowd 6-5.
The highlight of the game was uncharacteristically not the San Jose Shark's top line, but the production from their second and third. Clowe had a career-high 4 assists in a game. Michalek had a goal and 2 assists. Marcel Goc did not register a point but he was often against the boards keeping the puck in the offensive zone. The only point scored by San Jose's top line was the breakaway goal by Marleau. Emotions were high throughout, and at the end of the second period 5 penalties were handed out after a scrum between Joe Thorton and Rafalski exploded into a 5 on 5 fight. Many goals were also scored by Sharks who were in a slump. Ehrhoff's second period power play goal was his first in 27 games. Cheechoo had been quiet as well, and Pavelski, who scored his first goal in 14 games two nights ago notched another one tonight. Both teams were not at full strength, as San Jose were without defenseman Rob Blake, who took a puck to the face against Calgary two nights ago. Detroit lost Franzen after the second period after he suffered a lower body injury. But Red Wings coach Mike Babcock felt it was his own team's fault for not capitalizing on opportunities to put the game away. "They scored on their breakaways and we didn't. We had (Dan) Cleary all by himself and didn't finish. (Pavel Datsyuk) was home free on a breakaway and didn't finish. There's the hockey game."
Coming into the game, San Jose was 1 point ahead of Detroit for the lead in the Western Conference, and 1 point behind the Boston Bruins for the outright lead in the NHL. Sharks coach Todd McLellon said that Detroit was the best team in the NHL. In an interview during a timeout in the first period, Devin Setoguchi said that this game would determine who was the best team, when Thorton jumped in and declared that San Jose was the best team. With the win, San Jose extended their lead to 3, are leading the regular season series 2-1, and are now 1 point ahead of the Bruins for the best team in the NHL.
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