Joe Pavelski’s hot scoring form in the postseason continued as he scored two goals to lead the San Jose Sharks to a 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings in Thursday’s opening game of their NHL second-round playoff series.
Pavelski scored in the first period to start a spurt of three goals in just over a minute, with Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi also netting. Pavelski added his seventh goal of the postseason on a two-man advantage in the opening minute of the third period to help the Sharks end a string of four straight home losses in series openers.
Dan Cleary, Johan Franzen and Brian Rafalski scored for the Red Wings, who opened this series less than 48 hours after winning Game 7 in the first round at Phoenix. There will be two days off before Game 2 tomorrow in San Jose.
Dan Boyle added three assists and Evgeni Nabokov made 20 saves for San Jose.
After breaking out to a 3-0 lead, the Sharks entered the third period ahead by only one goal, but Pavelski made it 4-2 when he beat Jimmy Howard with a shot from the side of the net 50 seconds into the period.
Brian Rafalski got it back to a one-goal game a few minutes later when he converted off a blind pass from Pavel Datsyuk.
Howard turned away numerous good chances on a power-play midway through the third period, but the Red Wings were unable to get the equalizer on their own power-play right after that and Nabokov stopped a late flurry in front of the net to preserve the lead in the closing seconds.
San Jose hadn’t taken a 1-0 series lead since winning in Detroit three years ago, but the Red Wings came back to win that second-round series in six games.
That was just one of many recent playoff disappointments for the Sharks, who have the second-best regular season record over the past five years, but haven’t made it past the second round.
Nothing would help the Sharks shed their label of playoff underachievers more than knocking off the two-time defending Western Conference champion Red Wings, who are viewed by many as the favorites in this playoff series against the top-seeded Sharks, despite finishing fifth in the conference.
The Sharks were without their leading goal scorer in the regular season as Patrick Marleau was ill, but San Jose have been carried this postseason by Pavelski’s line with Setoguchi and Ryane Clowe, instead of the gold medal trio of Marleau, Heatley and Joe Thornton.
The Sharks got production from both lines in Game 1, quickly answering any questions about whether they would be rusty after having four days off since eliminating Colorado in six games in the first round.
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