Thornton Scores 300th, Sharks Beat Red Wings
DETROIT (AP) -- Joe Thornton scored his 300th career goal, Devin Setoguchi had two and the San Jose Sharks held on to beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Henrik Zetterberg scored a power-play goal with 1:51 left to pull the Red Wings within a goal, but they couldn't beat Antti Niemi again to force overtime.
Ryane Clowe scored on a breakaway he created midway through the game and Niemi made 35 saves for the surging Sharks, who have won four straight and 13 of 16.
Detroit's Danny Cleary scored game-tying goals early in the second and at the 14:42 mark of the period.
Jimmy Howard stopped 39 shots for the Red Wings, who had won a season-high five consecutive games since he was pulled Feb. 9 midway through a loss to Nashville.
The Central Division-leading Red Wings are trying to catch Vancouver for the top spot in the Western Conference and hold off teams such as San Jose for playoff positioning.
Detroit got off to a great start, outshooting the Sharks 9-1 midway through the first period and killing their 5-on-3 power play, but Thornton scored the game's first goal on a power play with 18 seconds left in the period.
Thornton became the 18th active player with 300 goals.
Cleary tied the game at the 7:06 mark of the second period and knotted it up again -- 34 seconds after Clowe's goal—late in the second, giving him a career-high 21 goals.
Setoguchi put the Sharks ahead for good with 1:17 left in the second period and made it a two-goal cushion at 13:12 of the third.
Niemi made several tough saves in the final period—including some against streaking Pavel Datsyuk—to make it difficult for the Red Wings to come back, but Zetterberg took advantage of Dany Heatley getting called for interference late in the game to make the final minute entertaining.
Niemi, though, made key saves on shots by Nicklas Lidstrom and Johan Franzen to deny Detroit.
NOTES: Red Wings F Patrick Eaves left in the second period, appearing to hurt his right knee when he led with it on a check against Torrey Mitchell. ... Thornton joined Mark Recchi, Mike Modano and Teemu Selanne as the only active players with at least 300 goals and 680-plus assists. ... Detroit G Chris Osgood (hernia surgery) said he's feeling "much better" after several practices and might be able to play March 11 at home against Edmonton or the next day at St. Louis.
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