Devin Setoguchi’s game winner his third goal of the game
By Helene St. James – Detroit Free Press
DETROIT – The Red Wings were a little more than four minutes from a regulation victory Wednesday night when the Sharks scored, undoing all the good work the Wings had done the first 55 minutes of the game.
Instead they left Joe Louis Arena with a 4-3 overtime loss and a crushing 3-0 deficit in the best-of-7 series. In each game the Wings have played better than the one before, but in each game the Sharks have been the better team, period.
Devin Setoguchi scored three times in Game 3, including the winner midway into the first overtime. Joe Thornton drove the puck into Detroit’s zone, bulling his way around Jonathan Ericsson, and sent the puck to Setoguchi, who fired a shot stick-side on Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard.
Nicklas Lidstrom and Pavel Datsyuk each had a goal and an assist, and Henrik Zetterberg had two assists for the Red Wings. Patrick Eaves also scored to help give the Wings a 3-2 lead they nursed deep into the third period.
But the Sharks were relentless, controlling the puck, making the Wings chase them, and succeeded in tying things up when Dan Boyle snapped the shot in from the right side at 15:52, part of a 16-8 shot advantage the Sharks had in the third period.
The Wings made it hard on themselves by again taking too many penalties, and got scored on during two of them, both times by Setoguchi. But they also played much more physically in the offensive zone, leading to better chances against Antti Niemi, and contained the Sharks during the second period, a stretch they’d dominated during the first two games.
The Wings started well, but that’s been the case all series. They also got into penalty trouble in the first period, and Setoguchi punished Darren Helm for a high-sticking call by converting on the Sharks’ first man advantage. Both Kronwall and Brad Stuart went into the corner after Patrick Marleau, enabling Thornton to find Setoguchi down low for a backhand, at 12:57.
Niemi had to make several good saves in the opening period, denying Jiri Hudler with a swift glove and batting away a golden opportunity from Ruslan Salei. With a minute to play in the period, Datsyuk attempted a wrap-around, and when the puck squirted into the slot, Zetterberg passed it between his legs to Lidstrom, who scored for the second time in the series.
Eaves fired the puck into an open net to give the Wings a 2-1 lead 14 minutes into the second period, but Setoguchi converted on another power play under a minute later. Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom united to restore the lead with just over a minute to play, with Zetterberg sending the puck to Datsyuk for a shot that landed high behind Niemi.
