Patrick Marleau scored seven minutes into overtime to complete a stirring 4-3 comeback victory for the San Jose Sharks over Detroit on Tuesday, pushing the Red Wings to the brink of Stanley Cup elimination.
The victory gives the Sharks a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven Western conference semi-final and a chance to sweep the series with a Game 4 win tonight.
The aging Joe Louis Arena had been a house of horrors for the Sharks, who had won just five times in 35 regular-season visits to “the Joe” and were just 3-6 in playoff trips to the Motor City.
Sharks head coach Todd McLellan, a former Red Wings assistant, will not have to be reminded how tough it is to win at the Joe.
“Tomorrow will be the day when we remind them how difficult that last game is,” McLellan said. “I’ve been in the other locker room and I know how much fight is in that team. Our task is going to be tougher for that fourth win than it has been for the first three. We know that.”
The good vibes at the Joe had looked ready to continue as the Red Wings took a 3-1 lead into the final period.
But the win suddenly disappeared when Joe Thornton and Logan Couture scored to force overtime and Marleau capped the comeback redirecting a laser feed from Thornton past a diving Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard.
A capacity crowd was left on the edge of their seats through a wild opening period that featured two disputed goals, a penalty shot and Detroit taking a 2-1 lead.
Henrik Zetterberg appeared to give Detroit the early advantage when the puck ricocheted off his skate past Evgeni Nabokov as he charged towards the Sharks net but after a lengthy video review, officials waved off the goal, ruling Zetterberg had kicked the puck into the net.
Three minutes later video judges were again pressed into action when Red Wings Tomas Holmstrom scored another disputed goal that went in off his skate.
This time judges ruled the goal good but controversy continued when Detroit was awarded a penalty shot.
Nabokov denied Zetterberg but there was no disputing Detroit’s second goal, Dan Cleary beating Nabokov.
The Sharks pulled one back with four seconds remaining in the frame on a goal from Devin Setoguchi, but the Red Wings restored their two-goal cushion early in the second through Zetterberg.
Former world No. 2 Paula Badosa has withdrawn from this week’s Wuhan Open, organizers said on Tuesday, amid a racism row over an online photograph. Tournament organizers said the Spaniard had pulled out of the WTA 1000 tournament, citing a gastrointestinal illness, hours before her first-round match against Australian Ajla Tomljanovic. News outlets including Britain’s the Telegraph earlier reported that Badosa had posted a photo on Instagram in which she appeared to imitate a Chinese face by placing chopsticks on the corners of her eyes. The photo was taken last week in a restaurant in Beijing, where she reached the semi-finals of the
Shin Oebori coaches the Fukagawa Hawks youth baseball team in Tokyo, and he is very aware how Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Shohei Ohtani touches his players. “With Ohtani, the kids think everything is possible,” Oebori said, wrapping up practice yesterday on an all-dirt field set alongside a local Buddhist temple, below an elevated highway, and in the shadow of tall apartment blocks in central Tokyo. “Nothing is impossible with him. A dream is not a dream,” Oebori said, stepping out of the fenced practice field that keeps balls from landing on the temple grounds. None of the players hitting sponge-soft baseball has reached
CRICKET Azhar’s 59 leads Stallions Aashir Azhar’s blazing half-century guided the Taipei Stallions to victory over Taipei Super 11 in the Taiwan Premier League’s Group A at the Yingfeng Cricket Ground in Taipei yesterday. The Stallions were 102-3 and into the 12th over of 20 when Azhar came to the crease. He hit seven sixes and two fours in the 25 deliveries he faced to push his side to 171-5. Gokul Kumar was the star with the ball for Super 11, taking 3-17. In the reply, Deepak Vishnu outscored Azhar with 77 from 50 balls, but nobody else got past 20 as
‘GLOBAL PRESSURE’: LA’s Dave Roberts said that it was difficult to appreciate the ‘pressure on a global scale’ his starter was under ‘pitching for his country’ The Los Angeles Dodgers shelled out US$1 billion for Japanese talent in the off-season and it is paying off in the MLB playoffs. Yoshinobu Yamamoto on Friday outdueled Yu Darvish in a historic post-season matchup of Japanese-born starters, while the Dodgers got home runs from Kike Hernandez and Teoscar Hernandez to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0 and advance to the National League Championship Series. “It’s pretty sweet,” a smiling Freddie Freeman said. Yamamoto allowed two hits over five innings for the win, getting pulled after 63 pitches in a decisive Game 5 between heated NL West rivals who were meeting in a
RSS