Shut Down: Wings blank Sharks, Advance to WCF
Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, and a depleted defensive corps pulled off the coup de grace last night when they defeated the San Jose Sharks 2-0. The Red Wings’ captain put in another Norris trophy-worthy performance when he made a diving save that prevented Mike Grier from scoring an empty-net goal on a wrap around scoring attempt. The Sharks forward made a great play to steal the clearing attempt from Dominik Hasek but Lidstrom made an even better play to preserve Detroit’s 1-0 lead.
The Red Wings received another big contribution from one of their secondary scoring threats when Mikael Samuelsson scored both goals. Both goals came in the first period, with the first one coming off a perfect pass from Johan Franzen. Samuelsson got behind everyone and waited for Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabakov to drop to try and make the save. The Red Wings forward then tucked the puck behind the fallen netminder and into the open net. The second goal had to be a punch to the collective gut of San Jose as it came with 8 seconds remaining.
There were several signs this series was over in the lead-up to Game 6. The most obvious was a Game 5 blowout win in which San Jose players took several roughing penalties. That was followed up by Sharks head coach calling Pavel Datsyuk’s goal in the game a “back breaker emotionally” which was very telling of the emotional state of his team. And in Game 6 shortly after Samuelsson scored the first goal Jonathan Cheechoo took a bad, completely unnecessary interference penalty. The penalty wasn’t a killer, but it just showed that San Jose struggled to cope with adversity.
The Red Wings, meanwhile, stared adversity in the face before poke checking the puck from him and heading the other way with an odd man rush. The moment when the Red Wings possibly turned this postseason run from one of bitter disappointment to one that will likely restore the luster to their storied franchise came when Robert Lang scored the tying goal with 34 seconds left in regulation in Game 4. The series completely turned on that play and as a result the Red Wings will play the Anaheim Ducks for the opportunity to play for the Stanley Cup.
NHL Playoffs Red Wings San Jose SharksNo Comments
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