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Welcome back Marty Havlat |
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The Sharks Marty Havlat scored the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory to take the season series 3-1 against the Red Wings and win consecutive games for the first time in over a month.
Havlat gave a lot of credit to Dominic Moore on the overtime goal for getting the puck to the net as he described his second of the game “It was all Moorsey (referring to Dominic Moore) in front of the net. He was standing in front of the goalie so I just to beat the D.
“I feel great after winning the game. We know what the situation is and every game and every point is very important for us right now.”
My experience with Havlat has been that he is a serious man and he doesn’t often show any emotion, however after Saturday’s game he looked content and relaxed while speaking with the press. You might even say he looked pretty happy as he answered questions with a smile on his face.
The Sharks got off to another great start with the Joe Thornton line suffocating the Red Wings and scoring the game’s first goal less than a minute in. Joe Pavelski got his own rebound on the right side and sniped one past Detroit’s goalie Jimmy Howard.
The Red Wings game was the best twenty man effort we have seen from the Sharks in quite some time. All four lines up front contributed with valuable minutes as well as the six defensemen. It is amazing what happens when you don’t have players playing outside their supposed roles.
“Everything falls into the right order when you place players where they should be” is how Coach McLellan responded when asked about the total team effort. “With Marty going now it bumps one down it solidified the third line and the fourth line gave us eight and a half good minutes.”
Rivalries like the one that the Red Wings and the Sharks have make hockey games that much more fun to watch, especially this time of year when games mean so much more than they do in the fall. The Sharks took the first two games of this series by the scores of 4-2 and 5-2, however the Wings won the last game they played 3-2 during their record setting home win streak.
Detroit and San Jose continued to build history between the teams with another edge of your seat exciting hockey game. The Sharks went up 2-0 late in the first period and looked as though they may walk away with this one, but the Wings came right back 0:23 seconds later to make it a one goal game. Scoring chances were aplenty the rest of the game with good goaltending, some luck, and a couple of posts playing a roles.
In typical fashion sixty minutes wasn’t enough time for these two teams to decide on a winner. Valtteri Filppula’s third period goal tied the game at 8:12 and although there were some prime scoring chances for both teams the goalies were strong.
These teams have a unique rivalry in the sense that they are similar in many ways. The Sharks head coach came from the Red Wings so their philosophies are alike. They both feature skilled forwards and two of the best puck moving defensemen in the game in Dan Boyle and Nick Lidstrom. The rivalry isn’t based around too much physical play or a hate for each other like others in the NHL. It is probably one of the most respected rivalries in hockey.
For this battle Detroit got Pavel Datsyuk back from injury, however they were without Johan Franzen who is out with back spasms and Nick Lidstrom is still out with ankle issues. The Wings issues on the point don’t stop there as Jakub Kindl and Jonathan Ericsson are also out.
The Sharks were without Colin White and Jim Vandermeer who continue to be healthy scratches on the point as well as Michael Handzus and T.J Galiardi up front. Tommy Wingels didn’t dress due to an upper body injury and Brad Winchester got the nod on the wing on the fourth line replacing Galiardi.
Handzus and Galiardi both skated this morning but T.J left the ice early which could mean he is not operating at 100%. I would think that if he were able to go we would have seen him in there against a team that doesn’t dress a lot of muscle.
Winchester took advantage of his opportunity on the fourth line playing some solid hockey, most of which was played in Detroit’s zone. The fourth line pressed the net hard and pushed pucks to the blue paint every chance they had.
Scoring Details
1st Period
SJ – 0:48 –EV – 8 J.Pavelski(25) – assists – 39 L.Couture(27), 19 J.Thornton(52)
SJ – 18:23 –EV – 9 M.Havlat(3) – assist – 12 P.Marleau(30)
DET – 18:46 –EV – 13 P.Datsyuk – assist – 55 N.Kronwall(19)
2nd Period
No scoring
3rd Period
DET – 8:12 –EV – 51 V.Filppula(23) – assist – 37 D.Janik(1)
Overtime
SJ – 3:23 –EV – 9 M.Havlat(4) – assists – 61 J.Braun(8), 18 D.Moore(18)
The turning point in this game was Martin Havlat. His emotional celebration after his first goal motivated his teammates and he would have been a footnote had they lost.
Contenders & Pretenders
Contenders
Martin Havlat – was a difference maker tonight in his second game back. He showed some fatigue in the second and third period but that didn’t stop him from coming through in the clutch. It’s good to have Marty back on the list.
Douglas Murray – hits the list for setting the pace early with his physical play. Murray also laid out the body on the PK saving a Detroit goal.
The third line – was great tonight and we saw Dominic Moore get on the score sheet on the game winner. Daniel Winnik was strong playing his best game in a Sharks uniform.
Pretenders
The power play – is on the top of the list for coming close but not finding the back of the net. They had some good opportunities but no finish.
Patrick Marleau – was a pretender tonight. His only consolation was that he found his way on the score sheet with a helper on St. Patty’s Day. Besides that he was as hard to find as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Keep your sticks on the ice,
Cam Gore
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
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