Wings beat Sharks as west battle tightens

The NHL Western Conference battle got a little more heated on Wednesday as the host Detroit Red Wings routed the San Jose Sharks 4-1 at Joe Louis Arena.  Detroit snapped San Jose’s 4 game winning streak, and the Sharks failed to earn a point in the standings for only the seventh time in their last 51 games.  Despite the setback, the Sharks narrowly maintained the edge over the Boston Bruins for the league’s best record.

Detroit quickly took control of the game with two first period goals.  Marian Hossa scored his 34^th of the year on the power play at 6:51 of the first period, assisted by Niklas Kronwall and Johan Franzen.  Near the end of the period, Ville Lieno added an even strength goal to double the Red Wings advantage, assisted by Kirk Maltby and Kris Draper.  The Sharks headed to the dressing room after one period down by a pair of goals despite outshooting the Red Wings 12-7.

The Red Wings would continue to pour it on early in the second, when Henrik Zetterberg scored his 23 goal of the year shorthanded with a helper from Kris Draper.  The Sharks would finally put the ‘biscuit in the basket’ at the 6:25 mark when Christian Ehrhoff converted on the power play set up by Milan Michalel and  Dan Boyle.  That would be San Jose’s only score of the game, and Zetterberg would score again on the power play late in the third period (assisted by Brian Rafalski, Pavel Datsyuk) to produce the final margin.

Red Wings coach Mike Babcock commended Zetterberg on his two goal game, but added that it wasn’t surprising:

"We've grown accustomed to watching him play like that"

Added Red Wings GM Ken Holland:

"He's a superstar. We're lucky to have him."

While his bosses were singing his praises, Zetterberg was already focused on the next challenge:

"They're ahead of us. You can't live in the past.  For sure, we want the first seed. But it's going to be tough because they're ahead of us with 21 games left."