Red Wings take a bite out of the Sharks in 6-2 victory

The Detroit Red Wings offense exploded in a 6-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks. Tyler Bertuzzi and Pius Suter secured two goals a piece in the win.

First Period

Givani Smith made things interesting just a couple of minutes into the game, taking Jacob Middleton to the ground after a little tussle.

Detroit had their first power play attempt of the game just under seven minutes into the period. Despite some solid puck movement (both Moritz Seider and Nick Leddy had excellent shifts as the power play quarterbacks), the unit couldn’t find the right time to pull the trigger.

Bertuzzi’s first goal of the night opening scoring for the Red Wings just a few minutes later. He tossed the puck from an odd angle (just adjacent to the net) and it clanked off of the goaltender’s stick and slipped into the net.

With just a few minutes left in the first, Smith was ejected after a hit on Middleton and the Sharks were rewarded with a five minute power play to wrap up the period.

Second Period

Detroit’s power play and offense have had a bit of a cold stretch of late – so of course it was on the penalty kill that the offense finally found its legs. The Wings nabbed two shorthanded goals to open the second; Suter nabbed his first of the net on the PK and Bertuzzi netted his second just 37 seconds later.

San Jose finally got on the board after their power play expired.

Suter secured his second goal of the game five minutes later, ripping in a nice pass from Michael Rasmussen at the front of the net.

The team’s traded power plays to end the second, but neither team could find the back of the net. The Wings went into the locker room with a 4-1 lead.

Third Period

Early in the third, the Sharks took advantage of a turnover at the front of the net to cut the lead to two, but Detroit’s offense quickly stifled any sort of hope for a comeback.

Dylan Larkin extended the lead back to three just over a minute later. Lucas Raymond slipped a nifty pass under his legs to the team captain, who crashed the net and sniped it in.

Robby Fabbri poured some salt onto San Jose’s wounds, intercepting a pass at the front of the net and shooting a wrister past the goaltender.

The final ten minutes saw some scrums after the whistle (one of which led to a game misconduct for Bertuzzi and another unsuccessful power play attempt), a Sharks penalty and a few more scoring chances, but neither team found the back of the net. Detroit skated away with a 6-2 victory.

This was the last home game before a road trip out west, which kicks off late Thursday night in Anaheim.