San Jose 2, Detroit 1
For the first period, the San Jose Sharks were swimming, er, skating in circles, watching the opponent play. The Detroit Red Wings seemed plenty comfortable at the hostile Shark Tank in the first 30 minutes, skating faster and checking harder than their hosts. Captain Nicklas Lidstrom scored a power-play goal and Dominik Hasek stopped 25 shots for the top-seeded Red Wings.
The Sharks finally figured out how to escape their midgame malaise when coach Ron Wilson decided to change the order in how his team was circling, shuffled all four of his lines, while Jonathan Cheechoo redoubled his efforts on his aching knee. And Joe Thornton kept doing exactly what he’s done all spring: patiently make life miserable for San Jose’s opponents. 
“Sometimes it takes half a game to figure out how you’re going to crack the other team,” Wilson said. This time, it wasn’t Dan Cleary, though his energy line was creating havoc early once again. No, this time it was Ryane Clowe, the Sharks rookie and native Newfie, who finally broke the Wings’ seal on this game, lifting a backhander just past the outstretched glove hand of Hasek. That tied it 1-1 at 12:43 of the second period, and from there wasn’t much ebb, just a steady flow of scoring chances for the Sharks. Then, Cheechoo scored a power-play goal with 6:21 to play, and the Sharks came from behind for a 2-1 victory Monday night in Game 3 of their second-round series.
Though Thornton added only one assist to his team-high 10 points in the postseason, his fingerprints — and fist prints, occasionally — were all over a gutsy victory by the Sharks, who took a 2-1 lead in the second-round series. But here’s the scary part for the Wings: Joe Thornton doesn’t look a guy who will settle for losing anymore. 
Did you see him on the bench, berating his friend and mentor, Bill Guerin, in the second period? Or better yet, they were leaving him on the ice and eschewing the bench altogether? Thornton played one tick more than 23 minutes Monday night, and that was nearly five minutes more than any other Sharks forward.
“Joe was easily the best player on the ice,” Wilson said after the game, in case any of us had been in the bathroom for the previous three hours. “I thought he was unbelievable tonight.”
Don’t the Wings know that when Sharks are circling, it’s only a matter of time before they attack?
Ottawa 2, New Jersey 0
Here’s the scenario: Ray Emery and Martin Brodeur against each other in a playoff game. One stop 25 shot the other made 32 saves. Emery has a handful of playoff games under his belt, while the later, stopped 43 shots for his 94th playoff win last Sunday. One will get a 2-0 shutout, the other will give up a late goal and lose this game. Pick the winner yet?
Brodeur is not the guy you’d ever figure would give up a bad goal. Not him, not with the career he has had, and certainly not during the NHL playoffs, not with the New Jersey Devils counting on him to be solid until the other team blinks. Odd things happen during the playoffs, though, and last night Brodeur blinked first. He allowed a goal by Tom Preissing at 4:46 of the third period that held up as the winner as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Devils 2-0.
Not that it was such a bad goal, but more like bad things happened on the goal. Brodeur said he was disappointed that the referees hadn’t seen Senators center Mike Fisher make contact with him on Preissing’s goal.
“I got touched,” Brodeur said. “It’s unfortunate he didn’t make the call on it. He probably didn’t think it was enough for him to call, but it definitely took my concentration away.” Mike Fisher acknowledged he made contact with Brodeur after looking at a replay. “I got a piece of Brodeur and I tripped him up a little bit and Preissing got the shot away,” Fisher said. “It was a great shot. I didn’t intentionally try to trip him.”
Devils coach Lou Lamoriello didn’t care about Fisher’s intent. “I don’t think it matters whether it’s intentional or not intentional, he made contact with the goalie,” Lamoriello said.
The Senators gave the Devils a few scary moments in the first period. They could have given them more had they thrown the puck at the net and hoped for a bounce or two.
For some unfathomable reason, though, they kept trying to make the perfect play. As it was, they had 11 shots in the opening period, but only a few were at all dangerous. On the first dangerous chance, with 4:36 left, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley poked a rebound through Brodeur, but referee Kelly Sutherland waved it off immediately, saying Brodeur had the puck covered. Then, a minute later, with the Devils’ Richard Matvichuk serving a penalty, Brodeur made a goal-saving stick save on Daniel Alfredsson at the right post. It was an example of why Brodeur has been widely regarded as the best goalie in the world. 
The second period provided some good chances for each team. While each team had nine shots, Brodeur faced the more dangerous ones, with the Senators having two power plays: one on Gomez in the final seconds of the first period, the other to Matvichuk for tripping. The Senators also gave up a power play, but the Devils couldn’t do anything with it. Less than a minute to go, and Spezza gives the Senators a 2-0 lead with a shot into an empty-net.
That’s a 2-1 series lead for Ottawa, with Game 4 on Wednesday night, and the shutout man, Ray Emery, will be back in net.
