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Marleau leads charge as Sharks topple Red Wings

Oct 31, 2008 - 7:04 AM By Michael Duca PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- At an appropriate time, the San Jose Sharks gave their first-year coach a special win.

Captain Patrick Marleau netted his sixth goal of the season and Devin Setoguchi added two assists as the Sharks cruised to a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday.

Todd McLellan was behind the bench for the first time against his former team, with whom he was an assistant over the last three seasons - including when the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup championship last campaign.

"Obviously, it means a lot (to McLellan)," Setoguchi said. "The top two teams in the West played tonight. We had a great game. We showed them that we can contend with the best. Overall, it was a great game by everyone on our team. That's the way we wanted to play."

Jamie McGinn scored his first career goal, while Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski also tallied for the Sharks, who improved to 6-0-0 at home this season.

"There's a lot of anticipation, but it's still early," Setoguchi said. "The last couple of games have been great. We've played good, with good tempo, and got pucks to the net."

Evgeni Nabokov turned aside 25 shots - including 13 in the third period, when the Red Wings outshot the Sharks, 14-6.

"The guys in this locker room know a win is a win, and you celebrate a little bit that night and forget it," McLellan said. "Tomorrow's another game to prepare for."

After a scoreless first, it did not take long for Detroit to get on the board in the middle session. The Red Wings won the opening faceoff in the second and Marian Hossa extended his points streak to nine games just 18 seconds later, when he took a pass in the left faceoff circle and wristed a shot past Nabokov on the glove side.

San Jose forged a tie just under seven minutes later as Joe Thornton slid a pass to Marleau, who cut to the net before slamming the puck past goaltender Ty Conklin's stick.

"They made a couple of good plays, and certainly we knew that was going to be part of their game plan, getting pucks to the net and putting pucks at the net from bad angles, too," Conklin said.

The Sharks then were lifted by an unexpected weapon on their checking line. McGinn took possession of a loose puck behind the net and forced his attempt between Conklin and the right goalpost at 9:02 for a 2-1 lead.

"We had a slow start to the second period. We knew we had to start getting the pucks deep and taking it to them with their legs after last night's game," McGinn said. "After the first five minutes, I think we did that, and we were rewarded with three goals."

The 20-year-old McGinn also enjoyed the emotions his personal achievement presented.

"It's something you dream of as a kid," McGinn said. "You don't know where you will be, but the San Jose fans are unbelievable. They are the loudest in the league. It was amazing to be there, and then to get a big hug from Jeremy Roenick when I got to the bench was something special.

"I didn't know what to do (when shown on the big screen), I was in shock. It was a great reaction from the fans, and (Roenick) told me to wave to them, so I gave it the wave."

San Jose immediately went on a power play when Hossa was whistled for tripping 12 seconds later, and Clowe converted a pass by Milan Michalek from behind the net with 9:34 remaining to complete an outburst in which the Sharks scored three goal in 3 minutes, 25 seconds.

"They scored, and Todd was still positive behind the bench, he knew we were going to get one," Clowe said. "For some reason, when we play Detroit, if we get one, we get two, we get three. I don't know why that is, but that's how it's been since I got here. We like playing them. They push the pace, and we like that."

Clowe has also felt the effect of McLellan's leadership thus far.

"We thought, if we played the way he wanted us to play and worked like that, we'd reap a lot of pucks to the net," Clowe said. "And we are. If we do the right things now, we feel we can win every night."

Pavelski made it 4-1 at 6:08 of the third, when he took a cross-ice pass from Setoguchi in full stride and slapped it past Conklin for his fifth goal of the season.

"I thought they were better than us right from the start to the end," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "They had more spark and energy than we did, that's the bottom line. You never want to let yourself off the hook, but we didn't have much jump and they beat us to all the pucks at the start of the game.

"We thought once we got through the first, we might be able to get our legs. We knew the first (goal) was going to be hard."

Defenseman Brian Rafalski cut the deficit to two with 32 seconds remaining in the game, but Detroit went on to drop its second in a row and end its first California trip of the season with just one point. The Red Wings suffered a 5-4 overtime loss at Anaheim on Wednesday.