Even if the Sharks started well and carried play, it was the Wings who, without straggling thanks to Jimmy Howard, got out of the first period. Undoubtedly, Sharks were competed profoundly by nine blocked shots and five missed, but the Wings later lost the focus, registering just six shots on net.

Just when Todd Bertuzzi was in front of Evgeni Nabokov, Brian Rafalski took advantage of Ryane Clowe having lost his stick to drift free; scored on the Wings' seventh shot as a wind up from the right tip. Also, when Joe Thornton grabbed Dany Heatley's shot, the Sharks came right back with a power-play goal, pilfering it around Howard and slipping it into the net.

At 6:59, in an awfully tense play, Patrick Marleau scored an advance goal, just when he picked up a pass by Joe Thornton and wired the puck glove-side on Howard. Even with two extra skaters for the last 51.5 seconds left for the season, the Wings couldn’t pull Howard with 1:38 left.

As far as the penalty shots were concerned, when Joe Pavelski was impeded by Niklas Kronwall in the third period, on a breakaway, then the former earned a penalty shot, but couldn’t get much of a shot on Howard.

Because of a lower-body injury, Brad Stuart was not his hundred percent in the game. Thus, to complete their seven defenseman and 11 forwards, Wings had dresses up Brett Lebda, to play in the team.

For Nicklas Lidstrom, it was his 247th career playoff game, which has tied him with Patrick Roy as the second-most in the NHL history.