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 Center Melker Karlsson, left winger Matt Nieto and center Joe
Pavelski scored to give San Jose a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red
Wings on Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.
It was the first game of a six-game road trip for San Jose. The
Sharks play the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.
"Just trying to focus and take one game at a time," said Sharks
goalie Martin Jones, who had 26 saves. "I know it's a cliche, but on
these long road trips, that's what we're trying to do."
San Jose had only 14 shots.
"We had some quality chances. Obviously, didn't get as many shots as
we'd like. But we had quality chances," Sharks coach Pete DeBoer
said.
Left winger Tomas Tatar and right winger Teemu Pulkkinen scored for
Detroit. Goaltender Jimmy Howard had 11 saves.
"I thought we played pretty well until their third goal, and that
really deflated us too much. You can't get that down in that
situation," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "After that, we
started trying to get cute instead of working for good shots. That's
something I really hadn't seen this year until the second half of
tonight's game."
Detroit center Pavel Datsyuk made his season debut. He was
recovering from surgery on June 26 to repair ruptured tendons in his
right ankle. He had four shots in 20:53 of ice time Friday.
"I had a couple good chances, but I would have liked to score one.
That would have been huge for the team tonight," Datsyuk said. "It
was fun to be back out there, but everyone was just flying by me in
the first period. It got a little better every shift, and by the
third I was moving OK. Maybe tomorrow they won't have to keep
waiting for me to catch up to them."
Pulkkinen scored with 1:52 left and Howard pulled for the extra
attacker to make it close. Pulkkinen's one-time slap shot from the
top of the left circle deflected in off the skate of Sharks
defenseman Justin Braun for his fifth goal of the season.
"We needed a win tonight. I thought we played a good road game,"
DeBoer said. "They outshot us, but we've been on the wrong side of a
few of those at home. ... We kept their shots from the outside."
Howard stopped Sharks forward Patrick Marleau on a breakaway a
minute into the third period.
Datsyuk hit the goal post 2:32 into the third period and Tatar hit
the crossbar 6:12 into the third period.
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"We did a good job in the third period," Jones said. "We didn't have
a lot of time in the offensive zone, but we didn't give up a lot."
Tatar gave the Red Wings a 1-0 lead 3:13 into the game. He beat
Jones with a wrist shot from the right circle off the rush. It was
Tatar's fourth goal of the season.
Karlsson tied it 7:41 into the first when he chipped a backhand shot
past Howard for his first goal of the season.
"That first one can't go in. That's on me," Howard said.
Nieto made it 2-1 with 2:08 left in the first period when he put in
his own rebound from near the bottom of the right circle. It was his
third goal of the season.
Pavelski made it 3-1 with 9:37 left in the second period when he
redirected defenseman Paul Martin's shot from the point past Howard.
It was Pavelski's ninth goal of the season.
"I never saw that one," Howard said. "I had to look at the big
screen to figure out what happened."
Jones stopped Datsyuk from in front with 1:42 left in the second
period and denied Luke Glendening's backhand shot with 56 seconds
remaining in the second period.
NOTES: San Jose coach Peter DeBoer will be an assistant coach for
Team North America in the World Cup of Hockey, which will be played
before the 2016-17 season. ... The Red Wings were without RW Johan
Franzen (concussion), C Brad Richards (back), D (Kyle Quincey) and F
Landon Ferraro (knee). ... Sharks F Patrick Marleau has been the
subject of trade rumors. ... San Jose was missing C Logan Couture
(broken leg).
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