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In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors.
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Sharks 3, Red Wings 0
Friday March 28, 2003
By GREG BEACHAM
AP Sports Writer
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) Vesa Toskala made 25 saves for his first
career shutout as the San Jose Sharks interrupted the Detroit Red
Wings' late-season surge with a 3-0 victory Thursday night.
Patrick Marleau, Mark Smith and rookie Lynn Loyns scored as San
Jose won for just the fourth time in 14 games. The Red Wings,
hoping for home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs, lost for
just the third time in 22 games since Feb. 8.
Toskala, who apparently has passed Miikka Kiprusoff as the
Sharks' backup goalie of the future, gave an outstanding
performance against the Stanley Cup champions. It was just the
fourth career NHL victory for the Finnish goalie, who spent most of
the season at the Sharks' AHL affiliate in Cleveland.
The Sharks had lost their first three games against the Red
Wings this season, but they avoided the sweep with a solid
defensive effort.
Curtis Joseph stopped 14 shots for the Red Wings, who had earned
a point in 19 of 21 games, winning 18 of them to streak to the top
of the Western Conference.
But with five games left in its regular season, Detroit missed a
chance to take the lead in its race with Dallas for the
conference's best record. Both teams had 102 points entering the
night, but the Stars earned a point in an overtime loss to Calgary.
Detroit has a game in hand on Dallas.
Marleau got his career-best 27th goal midway through the first
period when he skated through a huge hole in the Red Wings' defense
and beat Joseph.
San Jose went up 2-0 when Smith tipped Adam Graves' pass into
the net at the end of a long cycle. Loyns scored his third career
NHL goal into an empty net.
The Red Wings killed a two-man disadvantage that lasted 1:48
early in the first period, holding the Sharks to just one shot. But
San Jose the NHL's worst penalty-killing team killed Detroit's
four-minute power play later in the period, setting the tone for a
hard-hitting effort against the Red Wings.
As usual, thousands of jersey-wearing Red Wings fans turned the
Shark Tank into Joe Louis Arena West, with chants of ``Let's go,
Red Wings!'' piping up throughout the game.<
^Notes:@ Just like most stadiums, the Shark Tank displays studio
photographs of San Jose's starters on the overhead scoreboard when
they're introduced but none of the Sharks' six starters were with
the team at the start of the season when the pictures were taken.
... Detroit made its first trip to San Jose since the season
opener. The Wings won 6-3 in coach Dave Lewis' debut. ... Teemu
Selanne hasn't scored a goal in 15 games the longest drought of
the San Jose star's career.
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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