Suter, Bertuzzi help Detroit make short work of Sharks
Tyler Bertuzzi and Pius Suter each scored twice, including shorthanded goals on the same penalty, and the Detroit Red Wings beat the San Jose Sharks 6-2 on Tuesday night.
Dylan Larkin and Robby Fabbri also scored for Detroit. Alex Nedeljkovic made 24 saves.
The short-handed goals gave the Red Wings a 3-0 advantage early in the second period.
“It’s the same mentality, you are just doing everything you can to survive being short-handed and go from there,” Suter said. “We got the two short-handed goals and suddenly we’re up three, so that’s obviously really good for us.”
Jasper Weatherby and Alexander Barabanov scored for the Sharks. James Reimer stopped 20 of 24 shots before being replaced by Adin Hill (five saves) at the start of the third period.
Bertuzzi had the only first-period goal on a backhander from the side of the net. The shot glanced off Reimer’s stick and through his legs.
“That first goal was a
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fluke,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said. “It took some wind out of our sails.”
Detroit forward Giovanni Smith was penalized five minutes for boarding and given a game misconduct after a hit against defenseman Jacob Middleton late in the first period. Middleton suffered a head injury and did not return.
“He’s not feeling too good right now,” Boughner said.
Rather than providing San Jose an advantage, Suter scored on a breakaway and Bertuzzi added a goal off a feed from Carter Rowney during the Sharks’ extended power play.
“The deeper you get into a penalty kill like that, the more momentum it gives your team and the more it takes away from the other team,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “They didn’t get many good chances early, which got us feeling better about ourselves, and then we get the two goals. I don’t think we were trying to attack more than normal on the penalty kill, but we blocked some shots and got sticks in the lane. That’s how you get chances shorthanded and we happened to put two of them away.”
Detroit hadn’t scored two short-handed goals on the same penalty kill since Dec. 17, 1999, against Colorado.
“We lost the game in the five minute power play when they scored two shorthanded goals,” Boughner said. “You can’t go down 3-0 when you’ve got a fiveminute power play. That’s your chance to make a difference in the game, set the tone and get the game back to even and actually the opposite happened.”
Barabanov’s goal early in the third pulled San Jose within 4-2, but Larkin and Fabbri quickly answered.
“That was huge for us, because it took the energy out of their game,” Suter said.
The Sharks have allowed 14 goals in the last two games.
“It’s really embarrassing what we showed in the second,” Sharks forward Tomas Hertl said. “It changed the momentum of the game. It’s on us. It’s a tough feeling because (Reimer) was so good all season. The last two games we didn’t help him at all.”