Thursday, Nov. 05, 2009

San Jose Sharks (11-4-1) at Detroit Red Wings (6-4-3), 7:30 p.m.

The sizzling San Jose Sharks will take aim at a seventh consecutive victory tonight, when they visit the Detroit Red Wings for a Western Conference showdown at Joe Louis Arena.

The Sharks, who have also won eight of their last nine, earned their sixth straight win Wednesday evening in Columbus. San Jose is in the midst of its longest winning streak since the club rattled off nine in a row from November 13-December 4 of last season.

San Jose needed to go the distance to get its most recent victory, as Dan Boyle scored the game-winner in the shootout to lift the Sharks to a 3-2 decision over the Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena.

After the first three shooters missed to begin the shootout, Boyle, who added an assist in regulation, fired a wrister that found the upper right-hand corner of the net. Evgeni Nabokov then made a pad save on Rick Nash to secure the win for San Jose.

Dany Heatley and Joe Thornton each lit the lamp for the Sharks, who haven't dropped a game since losing to Tampa Bay on October 22. Nabokov stopped 26- of-28 shots for the victors.

"(The Blue Jackets) are a team that really collapses (defensively) and waits for mistakes," Heatley said. "We made a few mistakes here and there and we got a power play goal and Nabby (Nabokov) shut them down in the shootout."

Patrick Marleau added an assist for the Sharks to push his league-leading point streak to nine games. He has six goals and 10 helpers during the tear.

Tonight's tilt marks the end of a three-game road trip for the Sharks, who are 7-4-0 as the guest this season. Next up for San Jose is a three-game homestand that begins with Saturday's test against Pittsburgh.

The Red Wings, meanwhile, will try to extend their winning streak to a season- high three in a row tonight. Detroit has notched recent victories over Boston and Calgary and has taken three of its last four outings overall. Last year's Western Conference champions finally seem to be hitting their stride after a slow 3-4-2 start to the season.

After notching a 3-1 victory Saturday night in Calgary, the Red Wings returned to the Motor City to record Tuesday's shutout win over Boston. Chris Osgood stopped all 29 shots he faced to post his first shutout of the season and lead Detroit over the Bruins, 2-0, at Joe Louis Arena.

Osgood is 5-2-2 on the year and has stopped 49-of-50 shots in his last two outings.

"I thought he (Osgood) played well tonight," said Wings head coach Mike Babcock about his goaltender. '(Boston) had a few opportunities and he did well with them. I give him a lot of credit. We challenged our goaltender to be better than he has been in the last couple games and he did that."

Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom provided goals for the Red Wings.

Tonight marks the finale of a brief two-game residency for Detroit, which has a 4-1-1 home record this season.

The Red Wings could be without a pair of defensemen tonight, as both Brian Rafalski and Jonathan Ericsson are questionable with flu-like symptoms. Ericsson has missed the last two games due to the illness, while Rafalski sat out Tuesday's test against Boston.

The Sharks and Red Wings split four meetings last year and Detroit has taken five of the last eight overall in the series. San Jose has dropped two in a row and three of its last four in Motown.