Red Wings Blanked by Sharks

The Detroit Red Wings closed out their four-game West Coast road trip Thursday night, dropping a 2-0 decision to the San Jose Sharks.

The Wings had won the first three games of their trip and were looking for their first-ever four-game sweep of a Pacific Time Zone stretch.

In addition to losing the game, forward Johan Franzen went down with a lower body injury and did not return for the third period.

Joe Pavelski opened the scoring for the Sharks with just 1:01 left in the first period. With the puck behind the net, Pavelski made a wraparound attempt but the puck came out and deflected off defenseman Niklas Kronwall before sliding past goalie Jimmy Howard to give San Jose the 1-0 lead.
Brent Burns made it 2-0 just 2:07 into the third period. Detroit defenseman Brian Lashoff turned the puck over to Joe Thornton in the right faceoff circle and Thornton passed it off the skate of Brendan Smith to Burns for a snap past Howard.
Howard finished the night with 22 saves on 24 shots while Antti Niemi stopped all 27 shots the faced in earning the win for the Sharks.

Detroit failed to score on the game’s only power play, ending their streak of games with a power play goal at six.

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