Red Wings End West Coast Swing with Win over Sharks

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.