San Jose, CA (Sports Network) - Patrick Marleau scored twice as San Jose
Sharks scored five power play goals to beat the Detroit Red Wings, 5-1, to
attain their best seven-game start in franchise history.
Milan Michalek, Mark Bell and Jonathan Cheechoo also scored for San Jose,
which has won six of its first seven contests to begin the 2006-07 campaign.
Michalek, Christian Ehrhoff, Joe Thornton and Matthew Carle each had a pair of
assists.
Jiri Hudler scored for the Red Wings, who lost their second straight. Mathieu
Schneider and Johan Franzen assisted the goal.
Chris Osgood three goals on seven shots before being lifted for Joey
MacDonald, who had 13 saves. Vesa Toskala blocked 21-of-22 shots for San Jose.
"We were talking about this before the season, we want to get off to a good
start this season," Toskala said. "This hasn't happened the last couple of
years, We still have a tough schedule, like next week we have a 10 day road
trip. I guess if we do well there, after that week then we could say we're off
to a good start."
San Jose got on the board with three straight power-play goals. From the low
slot, Michalek took a pass from Carle and tipped in a shot glove side 6:35
into the first period.
The Sharks scored again exactly five minutes later. Cheechoo wrapped the puck
around the net and fed it to Carle, who missed a shot but Bell tipped it in
glove side for a 2-0 Sharks lead.
San Jose made it 3-0 with 5:28 to go in the first when Marleau picked up a
loose puck and scored on a wrist shot over Osgood's left shoulder from the
left circle, prompting MacDonald to come on in relief of Osgood for his NHL
debut.
The Sharks added two more power-play goals early in the third. Cheechoo took a
pass from Thornton in the right face-off circle and tipped in a shot a tick
over five minutes into the period, and Marleau scored off a rebound on a 5-
on-3 power play right in front of the net.
Detroit finally got on the board for the final margin with 8:48 left in the
third when Schneider set up Hudler in front of the net for a tip-in off
Toskala's skate.
"The whole game we were short handed," Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock said.
"We played really hard and really competed, we just never got any results."
