SAN JOSE, California -- The Detroit Red Wings finished off a four-game West Coast road trip with 4-1 win over the San Jose Sharks Saturday night.
With the win, the Red Wings earned six of a possible eight points on the trip, all against teams ahead of them in the standings. The lone loss came to the Anaheim Ducks.
Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard allowed a single goal for the second consecutive game, stopping 26 of 27 San Jose shots.
The Sharks scored their lone goal with 8:58 left in the first period. Joe Thornton won a draw in the right faceoff circle back to Dan Boyle, who threw it at Howard. Howard stopped the initial shot and made a diving save on the first rebound but Patrick Marleau was there to flip the third chance past him.
Pavel Datsyuk tied the game 6:37 into the second period, stealing the puck from Ryane Clowe and snapping a wrister over the shoulder of San Jose netminder Evgeni Nabokov.
Patrick Eaves put Detroit in front with 5:07 left in the second, deflecting a Doug Janik shot from the blue line past Nabokov. The Sharks complained that the puck was hit with a high stick but the goal stood after video review.
Dan Cleary put the Red Wings up by a pair just 69 seconds later, beating Nabokov with a wrister from the left faceoff circle on a rush with Valtteri Filppula.
Darren Helm wrapped up the game's scoring at 4:34 of the third period, driving to the net to slide the puck around a sprawling Nabokov.
Nabokov finished the night with 17 saves on 21 Detroit chances.
Neither team scored on the power play. Detroit had one chance with the extra attacker while San Jose had two.
With the West Coast portion of their five-game road trip wrapped up, the Red Wings head to Long Island to take on the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
Kicking this off from my phone 'cause I might not be back from a dinner before the start of the game.
Howard gets a well-deserved start. May in for Leino. That's all I've got.
All I can ask for at this point is that they come out strong and they play their game. Howard is going to have his hands full with Thorton, Heatley, and Marleau. The Defense needs to shut those guys down.
Just in case I haven't mentioned it this trip, I hate West Coast games. I feel like I'm gonna crash at any second.
Abs with a great chance there. Damn.
Something freaked me out for a second on the last shot of the Wings bench.
I'm looking at the set of sticks behind the bench and I see Brad Stuart's with his #23 on them but a few down I catch a glimpse of a couple with #16. Took me a minute to realize that they're Drew Miller's, he wore #16 with Tampa and it's not like he'd have ordered new sticks when he came to Detroit.
Goddammit. Howard made a couple fantastic stops there, too bad he needed to make three.
@#$*(&@^#*$&^(# April in the D commercials. That's all I have to say. That, and Datsyuk's Rahmani commercial was way better, I wish they still played it.
At least the Wings are not getting their asses handed to them. So at the moment, I can deal 
Datsyuk! Tied at 1.
You don't need three shots to beat Nabokov, just one from the right guy.
Holy jesus! I bet Nabokov's got to be p*ssed right now.
My computer crashed as Eaves scored and came back up as Cleary scored. I think it was Silicon Valley trying to silence my celebration.
That was a much better period.
Gotta stay awake during intermission, do I play video games and risk not switching back in time?
Helm jams another one in on the short side. Huge goal.
That is a huge two points. Huge.
Solid, solid game by everyone on the ice. Even Janik and Lebda and May.
That was one of the best games I have seen the Wings play since being bitten by the injury bug. I agree with Clark, those two points are HUGE!
Dan Cleary
Credit: Clark Rasmussen
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