Dany Heatley potted a pair of goals to help the San Jose Sharks beat the Detroit Red Wings 3-1 on Thursday.
Tomas Holmstrom scored the lone tally for the Red Wings, who lost in Anaheim last night on a controversial call. Patrick Marleau was credited with the other San Jose goal.
Joey MacDonald started in place of Jimmy Howard and was strong early en route to stopping 25 of the 28 shots he faced. Antti Niemi stopped 26 shots for the Sharks in his 20th consecutive start.
Heatley opened the scoring 3:51 into the game, winning a scramble in front of the net to poke home his 21st goal.
The Red Wings appeared to tie the game on a power play near the end of the period when Niklas Kronwall ripped a slap shot past Niemi, but Johan Franzen was called for goaltender interference to negate the goal. Replays showed that Franzen did not make contact at all with Niemi on the play.
Justice prevailed in the end though, as Tomas Holmstrom tipped in Mike Modano’s slapper from the left circle on the very same power play to tie the score.
Heatley scored what turned out to be the game-winner 3:54 into the second period, tipping in a shot by Joe Pavelski past MacDonald for a 2-1 lead on the power play.
MacDonald then made a critical error with about four minutes left, leaving his net to play a puck near the right faceoff circle as teammate Jonathan Ericsson raced Marleau for the puck. MacDonald beat both men there, but fired it directly off Marleau and into his own net to seal the Wings’ fate.