Sharks Lack Their Usual Bite

The San Jose Sharks had a ten-game unbeaten streak snapped at Joe Louis Arena, being shut out 3-0 by the Red Wings.

The Red Wings and Sharks looked fairly evenly matched during the first period. Play went end to end, with scoring chances for both teams. Goaltenders Dominik Hasek and Evgeni Nabokov were both brilliant in net. Hasek’s most notable stop came towards the end of the period against Nicklas Sundstrom, who got the puck on a turnover and had both time and room in front of the net. He couldn’t manage to lift the puck high enough on the shot, and Hasek grabbed it and hung on.

Kris Draper opened the scoring midway through the second period. Sergei Fedorov shot the puck hard from the blue line, and Draper managed to kick it up from Nabokov’s leg pads, to his stick, and up into the net to score his ninth goal of the year and pass his last season’s goal total in this thirty-sixth game of the season.

Steve Yzerman took advantage of the momentum and made a contribution to the scoring a minute and a half later. He stole the puck from Bryan Marchment behind the San Jose net and carried it out front. The shot bounced off a San Jose defenseman’s stick and deflected into the net to put Detroit up by two.

In the third period, Detroit managed to shut down the Sharks’ offense considerably. The first shot against Hasek in the period didn’t come until 8:48 had gone by. Matt Bradley got a quality breakaway scoring chance, but Hasek was able to stop the puck in time.

The only goal in the third period came from Brett Hull with 3:11 left to play. Hull, flying up the right wing side, took a rink-wide pass from Yzerman and let fly a blistering slapshot which slid right between Nabokov’s legs.

Nabokov stopped 26 of 29 shots. Hasek stopped all of the 19 shots he faced to win his fifty-eighth career shutout, tying him with Ed Belfour for highest number of shutouts among active goaltenders.

The Red Wings will travel to Chicago to face the Blackhawks at the United Center on Sunday night.