A relentless red tide guaranteed there will be a Game 7.
The Red Wings completely dominated the San Jose Sharks in Tuesday night's 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks at Joe Louis Arena. But they again needed to rally from a third period deficit, just as in Game 5.
The win forced Game 7 on Thursday night (9 p.m. EST) in San Jose in the second round Stanley Cup Playoff series, in which the Red Wings lost the first three games.
“We haven't accomplished anything yet,” Niklas Kronwall said. “We still have one more game and it's another Game 7 for us."
Detroit is attempting to become only the fourth team in NHL history to come back from a 3-0 deficit and win a best-of-seven playoff series.
The Red Wings attacked in wave after wave after wave on Tuesday night, out-shooting the Sharks 45-25. The margin was 32-13 during the first two periods but the game was scoreless. San Jose goalie Antti Niemi, who made 42 saves looked unbeatable. He was helped by Drew Miller missing a nearly open net on a backhand rebound attempt early in the second period and Danny Cleary hitting the outside of the goal post with Niemi down and out after a deke on a breakaway a few minutes later.
The Sharks Logan Couture finally opened the scoring 3:54 into the third period when he whacked Dany Heatley's rebound out of the air and the puck tricked through Jimmy Howard's pads and barely crossed the goal line. The goal light never came on and the referee didn't signal a goal. But video review showed that the puck barely crossed the goal line.
“We didn't get frustrated even when they went ahead,” Cleary said. “We put a lot of shots on Niemi, he played a hell of a game.”
Henrik Zetterberg tied it at 1, with 9:22 left when he tipped Niklas Kronwall's shot out of mid-air and, finally, past Niemi.
Valtteri Filppula's game winner came just 2:16 later, when he put in Pavel Datsyuk's cross slot pass after Filppula, who also got the second assist on Zetterberg's goal, started the play by knocking down
Couture's clearing attempt in the neutral zone.
"He shot it at me and it stung a bit in my hand. It was good to get it and then Datsyuk just made a great play,” Filppula said. “When you are playing with him, you know there's always a chance (you'll get the puck back). He had to pass it through a couple of guys, so it was a great play."
The crowd had been loud all night but it erupted when Zetterberg scored and got even louder after Filppula's tally.
“We got those two goals and you could feel the energy level lift in the building,” Cleary said. “It was awesome.”
Darren Helm added an empty-net goal with 1:05 left.
The Red Wings now stand on the brink of history.
Chicago rallied to tie its first-round series with Vancouver last month, but the Canucks won Game 7 in overtime.
Will Detroit join the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1975 New York Islanders and last year's Philadelphia Flyers in the history books?
“This team is working truly hard here,” said Howard, who made 24 saves. “Nobody was feeling bad about
us being down 3-0 in the series. We weren’t about to hang our heads, either. Even though we were down
3-0, there was still a calmness about this team.”
Briefly
Mike Modano replaced Johan Franzen (ankle) in the Red Wings' lineup. It was Modano's series debut. He played in Game 4 against Phoenix, also in place of Franzen. … San Jose LW Ryane Clowe didn't make the trip to Detroit for the game because of an upper-body injury. Sharks' coach Todd McLellan said Clowe didn't suffer the injury on Niklas Kronwall's big check. … If Detroit wins Game 7, it will start the Western Conference Finals in Vancouver on Sunday night at 8 p.m.
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