DETROIT — The Detroit Red Wings will get a chance to complete one of the few pieces of history that has eluded the storied Original Six franchise.
The Wings will look to become just the fourth NHL team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to a win a best-of-seven playoff series after they rallied to down the San Jose Sharks 3-1 on Tuesday in Game 6 of their Western Conference semifinal.
Game 7 Thursday in San Jose.
Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula scored third period goals and Darren Helm sealed the deal with an empty-netter.
Logan Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead early in the third period, but San Jose could protect the lead.
Filppula’s goal came with 7:28 left to play.
In a series that is becoming a war of attrition, both teams were missing key pieces in this critical contest due to injuries. Detroit’s Johan Franzen (ankle) sat in favour of Mike Modano, while Ryane Clowe, the Sharks’ leading scorer in the post-season, stayed in San Jose with an upper body injury. Ben Eager replaced Clowe. Wings coach Mike Babcock also inserted Jiri Hudler back into the line in place of Kris Draper.
However, with the changes it was the Wings who found their game first. Detroit outshot the Sharks 18-6 in the opening frame as goalie Antii Niemi and his teammates were in complete survival mode. However, Niemi stood firm in the face of the onslaught as he not only had to stop a hail of rubber, but he had to do it with a lot of red and white crashing his crease. His best saves came against Niklas Kronwall, who swooped across the face of goal but was denied, and a glove save on Tomas Holmstrom from 20 feet out in the slot. After being a step slow all period, the Sharks had to be delighted to escape to the intermission with a scoreless tie.
The traffic remained pretty much one-way in the second period. It was becoming apparent that it would be up to Niemi to steal this one as Detroit outshot the Sharks 14-7. When Niemi wasn’t outstanding he was blessed by good fortune. Three times in the period, the Wings had him down and out and couldn’t score. Drew Miller shot wide off a Helm rebound, Dan Cleary hit the post on a breakaway after sending Niemi the wrong way on a deke and Holmstrom fired Pavel Datsyuk’s rebound wide at the buzzer of the middle frame.
Watching the masked-man at other end turn in a show-stopping performance is always dangerous. Just how dangerous became evident in early in the third period. Detroit defenceman Ruslan Salei turned the puck over and Wings goalie Jimmy Howard failed to control a weak shot allowing Couture to bat in the rebound at 3:54.
However, Zetterberg tipped in Kronwall’s wrist shot at 10:38 to send the crowd into a frenzy.
The Wings continued their Lazarus act when Datsyuk set up Filppula for his first goal and point of the series.
Detroit had one more scare to survive when Justin Abdelkader took a bad penalty, but the Wings were able to kill it off and Helm finished the scoring.
Windsor Star
The Wings will look to become just the fourth NHL team to overcome a 3-0 deficit to a win a best-of-seven playoff series after they rallied to down the San Jose Sharks 3-1 on Tuesday in Game 6 of their Western Conference semifinal.
Game 7 Thursday in San Jose.
Henrik Zetterberg and Valtteri Filppula scored third period goals and Darren Helm sealed the deal with an empty-netter.
Logan Couture gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead early in the third period, but San Jose could protect the lead.
Filppula’s goal came with 7:28 left to play.
In a series that is becoming a war of attrition, both teams were missing key pieces in this critical contest due to injuries. Detroit’s Johan Franzen (ankle) sat in favour of Mike Modano, while Ryane Clowe, the Sharks’ leading scorer in the post-season, stayed in San Jose with an upper body injury. Ben Eager replaced Clowe. Wings coach Mike Babcock also inserted Jiri Hudler back into the line in place of Kris Draper.
However, with the changes it was the Wings who found their game first. Detroit outshot the Sharks 18-6 in the opening frame as goalie Antii Niemi and his teammates were in complete survival mode. However, Niemi stood firm in the face of the onslaught as he not only had to stop a hail of rubber, but he had to do it with a lot of red and white crashing his crease. His best saves came against Niklas Kronwall, who swooped across the face of goal but was denied, and a glove save on Tomas Holmstrom from 20 feet out in the slot. After being a step slow all period, the Sharks had to be delighted to escape to the intermission with a scoreless tie.
The traffic remained pretty much one-way in the second period. It was becoming apparent that it would be up to Niemi to steal this one as Detroit outshot the Sharks 14-7. When Niemi wasn’t outstanding he was blessed by good fortune. Three times in the period, the Wings had him down and out and couldn’t score. Drew Miller shot wide off a Helm rebound, Dan Cleary hit the post on a breakaway after sending Niemi the wrong way on a deke and Holmstrom fired Pavel Datsyuk’s rebound wide at the buzzer of the middle frame.
Watching the masked-man at other end turn in a show-stopping performance is always dangerous. Just how dangerous became evident in early in the third period. Detroit defenceman Ruslan Salei turned the puck over and Wings goalie Jimmy Howard failed to control a weak shot allowing Couture to bat in the rebound at 3:54.
However, Zetterberg tipped in Kronwall’s wrist shot at 10:38 to send the crowd into a frenzy.
The Wings continued their Lazarus act when Datsyuk set up Filppula for his first goal and point of the series.
Detroit had one more scare to survive when Justin Abdelkader took a bad penalty, but the Wings were able to kill it off and Helm finished the scoring.
Windsor Star
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