DETROIT, Michigan -- The Detroit Red Wings earned a 4-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks Saturday afternoon, giving them a 3-2 lead in their Western Conference Semifinal series and putting them one win away from the Conference Finals.
If the Red Wings win game six in San Jose on Monday or game seven in Detroit on Wednesday, they will advance to face the Anaheim Ducks. San Jose would need to win both games to eliminate Detroit.
As they did in their previous two wins, the Red Wings had to come from behind to get the win.
After a Marcel Goc goal at 4:53 of the first period, Henrik Zetterberg tied things up just 3:10 into the second.
Nicklas Lidstrom got the puck on net and Tomas Holmstrom brought it across the top of the crease, trying to get a shot off. It came to Zetterberg at the side of the net and he lifted a shot over San Jose goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and into the top of the net.
Pavel Datsyuk put Detroit out in front with 3:47 remaining in the period on a miscue by Nabokov.
The puck was cleared into the San Jose zone and Nabokov came out of his crease to play it. He tried to clear it away but Datsyuk was racing in to challenge him and Nabokov's pass ended up in Datsyuk's skates. Datsyuk got control of the puck and skated it into the open San Jose net for the eventual game-winner.
Mikael Samuelsson and Tomas Holmstrom added insurance goals on two third period power plays.
Samuelsson scored on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle at 3:46 of the period and Holmstrom scored from the front of the net at 6:14.
The two goals accounted for all of Detroit's power play scoring. San Jose did not score with the man-advantage. Each team had six tries with the extra skater.
Nabokov finished the game with 29 saves on 33 Detroit shots. Red Wings' netminder Dominik Hasek made 23 stops on 24 San Jose attempts.
Notes: The Red Wings suffered a blow in the first period when defenseman Mathieu Schneider broke his wrist on a hit from San Jose captain Patrick Marleau. Schneider is expected to miss the remainder of the playoffs. Brett Lebda will return from his ankle injury to replace Schneider in the lineup... The Sharks were without Bill Guerin, who is expected to return for game six after taking a puck to the face in game four.
Bill Guerin will sit this one out for San Jose but that's the only expected line change. Not like he was doing much anyway.
Game #5 on 5/5... Nicklas Lidstrom as the hero?
wouldn't surprise me haha
Matt Ellis took the pregame skate, not sure if that means anything.
After the playoffs, Hasek needs to be let go and a new young goalie needs to come in. Hasek lets in too many easy goals. It's about time for a change. I think they should try and steal Vesa Toskala from San Jose.
After 20 minutes, not too happy. Sharks goal... Never should have gotten tha shot off. Not surprisingly, it did come after an un-called hook at the other end.
Anyone know what's up w/ Schneider?
Way to be tough and jump Zetterberg to end the period. B.S. that Zata got a penalty on that.
Datsyuk ownz you. 
Are we having fun or what?!
haha I love owning teams. It was fun to see San Jose react exactly like Calgary did. I'm feeling Detroit taking it in 6. Go Wings baby!
I can tell you this, we will go to the conference finals. How do I know this? Because I am not at home to go see the games in Anaheim!!!!!
Hey Clark...another awesome game. Still disappointed that more fans aren't wearing red. Also don't you think the towels they hand out at the game should be red instead of white...just a thought. Hope you had a great time, I'm sure you did. Wings in six baby!!!!
We were debating on the way home whether today's game or Game One against Edmonton last year (a double-OT win) was the best playoff game we've been to. The Wings were pretty dominant and the crowd was into it. It was nuts.
I think the Wings organization is pushing the red thing too much. The cynical side of me says they're only doing it because they know more people have white jerseys so if they push people to wear red, maybe those people will spend the money on a new jersey. This was the first game since 1995 that I didn't wear a Steve Yzerman jersey to, since all of my Yzerman jerseys are white. If everyone actually was wearing red, I'm sure the white towels would look pretty cool, but since you see a lot of white (and even some teal, I almost felt sorry for the kid in the Sharks hat sitting behind us, that was the only thing that stopped me from taking his picture when it looked like he was going to cry at the end of the game), the towels really should be red.
It probably costs more to print on red towels, anyway.
I'll post some thoughts on the game itself tomorrow, after I watch some replays from my DVR.
Some thoughts after seeing some things on replay... Catmandu says, "That's right, bitches." I say there's no way the second and fourth Detroit goals should have been scored. Same for San Jose's goal.
Dom should have had that shot by Goc, I thought it might have been deflected at the time but after replay Hasek was just slow to move. Good thing it didn't matter.
Nabokov made an awful play on Datsyuk's goal. Hull later said that all Nabokov had to do was put it past Datsyuk. I say he had to do even less, he just had to put it away from Datsyuk. Nabokov could have passed that in any direction except for the one he went in and Datsyuk wouldn't have gotten to it in time to score.
On the fourth goal, Holmstrom was right in the middle of the four Sharks on the ice. Someone should have had him, there's no way he should have been open.
agreed, I think the cleanest goal of the game was Samuelsson's. What a beauty. He's got a pretty nice shot. He had a few wrist shots early in the game that missed only by a few inches, what a sniper!
Yeah, I saw the highlights on Samuelsson's goal, and that was an awesome goal. Gotta feel bad for Schneider, though; it's been reported that he broke his wrist last night. His postseason= over.
Yeah, I saw the highlights on Samuelsson's goal, and that was an awesome goal. Gotta feel bad for Schneider, though; it's been reported that he broke his wrist last night. His postseason= over.
What does Schneider's season ending injury mean to the Red Wing's playoff hopes?
After the playoffs, Hasek needs to be let go and a new young goalie needs to come in. Hasek lets in too many easy goals. It's about time for a change. I think they should try and steal Vesa Toskala from San Jose.
I agree, it was a soft goal. But how many times has he kept shut teams down? I still think he's in the top five in the league.
Ansar Khan says that Schneider's wrist was shattered.
The bone in Mathieu Schneider's left wrist was shattered. He'll have surgery this week and will be in a splint for eight weeks or so.
Lebda will be a gameday decision, Meech will get the call if Lebda can't go. Chelios will pick up more of Schneider's minutes.
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