RED WINGS RIP SHARKS TO AVOID ELIMINATION

The Detroit Red Wings entered Thursday’s home game against the San Jose Sharks with their backs against the wall, trailing 3 games to none in their best of 7 Western Conference Semifinal series.  Thanks to a career game from Johan Franzen, Detroit lives to fight another day.  Franzen scored four goals and added two assists as the Wings used a five goal first period to rout the Sharks 7-1.  The series now shifts back to California for Game 5 on Saturday.

NHL hockey betting enthusiasts that laid the -130 chalk price on the Red Wings got the victory as Detroit won for only the second time in their last six playoff home games. The Detroit victory also ended a six game San Jose winning streak.  The 8 combined goals went well OVER the posted total of 5’.  All four of the games in this series have played OVER the total, as have eleven of the last fifteen meetings between the two teams.
 
The Wings got on the board quickly, opening their scoring onslaught with Todd Bertuzzi’s second goal of the playoffs.  Then Johan Franzen went to work, scoring three straight goals—a natural hat track—in just under 3 and a half minutes.  Valtteri Fippula added a goal just before the end of the first period to send the Red Wings to the locker room with a 5-0 advantage.  Detroit would make it 6-0 early in the second period on Brian Rafalski’s power play marker.  San Jose would score their only goal of the contest late in the second period when Dany Heatly converted on the power play.  Franzen would score his fourth goal early in the final period to complete the 7-1 blowout.

Franzen had only two goals in his first 10 playoff games, and hopes that this is a sign that his scoring slump is over:

"Hopefully, I can get some confidence and the team can get some confidence. I've been struggling on the goal-scoring side."

Detroit coach Mike Babcock shared these thoughts about Franzen, who is nicknamed ‘Mule’ by his teammates:

"Mule is one of those guys -- like [Joe] Pavelski -- when you get hot, you just shoot the puck.”

Sharks’ coach Todd McLellan hopes that the rout will serve as a wakeup call to his players that this series isn’t over yet:

"Maybe this spanking will wake us up to know we're not out of the woods. I'm saying it. We have to respond to it."

The winner of this series will face the eventual victor in the Vancouver Canucks/Chicago Blackhawks series for the right to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals. Back East, the semifinal series are being contested between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Montreal Canadiens, and the Philadelphia Flyers versus the Boston Bruins.