Sharks Win in Shootout

The Detroit Red Wings came out on Monday with solid defense and outstanding play by goaltender Jimmy Howard.

Although the Red Wings came  so close to a victory, a beautiful kick save on Todd Bertuzzi’s shootout opportunity and Logan Couture slipping one past Howard, sealed the deal for the San Jose Sharks, with a final score of 1-0.For any coach in the NHL, he would be pleased by the performance of these star-studded teams. With some of the best forwards currently in the NHL in rookie Tomas Hertl (who has come out and shocked the NHL scene with his beautiful set of hands and quick speed) and Pavel Datsyuk of Detroit (who threatens teams every time he steps on the ice and is officially veteran status), one would ask where the goals were.

“There was two pretty good teams there tonight. I thought our young D played pretty good. There wasn’t much in the way of scoring chances either way,” Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said.

Babcock said it straight forward to every single Detroit and San Jose fan out there that this was a game of defense.

Although there was no scoring, the excitement was there. Young defensemen Danny Dekeyser and debut-rookie Xavier Ouellet on the back-end shut down San Jose’s electrifying offense. San Jose, on the opposite side of the ice, did the same to the Wings’ forwards. For Detroit, this is a plus in and of itself. The Red Wings want their young defensemen to step up and learn to play ‘Red Wings style hockey’ against San Jose, and they did just that.

Jimmy Howard stood on his head and played the best that he could. He had 27 saves on 27 shots in regular time and overtime.

It definitely could have been worse for the Red Wings. It would have been nice to get two points, but at least they earned one.

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Information from the Detroit Red Wings was used in this report.

For more information on the Detroit Red Wings and NHL hockey from analysts and journalists at Michigan State University – tune into Octopi Hockeytown podcasts and embrace the Spartan debate at www.impact89fm.org/sports

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Austin Goodman is the host of Octopi Hockeytown for Impact Sports

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Scoring Summary:

NO REGULAR TIME OR OVERTIME GOALS

Shootout Lineups

DET:

Pavel Datsyuk – Missed

Daniel Alfredsson – Missed

Todd Bertuzzi – Missed

SJS:

Patrick Marleau – Missed

Logan Couture – Game winning shootout goal

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