Brunner Lifts Red Wings over Sharks in Shootout

Damien Brunner scored his second shootout goal in as many career tries on Thursday night, giving the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 shootout win over the San Jose Sharks.

Brunner slowly skated in on San Jose netminder Antti Niemi before snapping a shot past him for the only goal of the shootout.

Niemi had previously stopped Pavel Datsyuk. Detroit goalie Jonas Gustavsson, making his first start with the Wings, stopped Michal Handzus, Patrick Marleau and Ryane Clowe in the skills competition.

After a scoreless first two periods, the Sharks got on the board at 4:49 of the third. Joe Thornton stripped a bouncing puck from Justin Abdelkader just inside the Detroit blue line, then fed Logan Couture for a one-timer from the right faceoff circle off of Gustavsson and in.

The Red Wings responded 1:32 later, when a Niklas Kronwall shot from the blue line deflected off San Jose forward T.J. Galiardi, then Patrick Eaves, then a post before hitting the back of the net to make it 1-1.

Niemi finished the night with 33 saves on 34 shots. Gustavsson earned his first win as a Red Wing with a twenty-five save performance.

Neither team scored a power play goal on the night. Detroit had two tries while San Jose had one.

The Red Wings now head back home to host the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday afternoon.

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Ian White and Kent Huskins were the healthy scratches for the Red Wings… Valtteri Filppula remained out with an injury.