Red Wings at Sharks preview

RED WINGS (26-31-11) at SHARKS (36-23-9)
10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCA, FS-D, NHL.TV

The Sharks lead the Anaheim Ducks by one point, the Los Angeles Kings by two and the Calgary Flames by three.
Goaltender Martin Jones will make his eighth straight start for San Jose, which is 3-2-0 in its past five games. Jones is 7-4-1 with a 1.92 goals-against average, a .937 save percentage and one shutout in his past 12 starts.
The Red Wings have lost six straight games (0-5-1), one shy of their longest streak this season (0-3-4, Nov. 19-Dec. 2). They trail the Columbus Blue Jackets by 14 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
Jimmy Howard, 0-4-1 in his past five starts with 15 goals allowed, will start for Detroit.

Players to watch

Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader has four points (one goal, three assists) in his past five games.
Sharks forward Joe Pavelski has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past five games.

They said it

"Ultimately I think he's part of the solution here. I think he can be a big piece of the solution, so hopefully he gets great experience here right now."-- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on rookie forward Tyler Bertuzzi
"We're in a position where we can control our own destiny. We don't need to worry about scoreboard watching or what other teams are doing. As long as we take care of our business we can be in a spot that we want to be in."-- Sharks forward Evander Kane

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Henrik Zetterberg -- Gustav Nyquist
Martin Frk -- Dylan Larkin -- Anthony Mantha
Justin Abdelkader --
Evgeny Svechnikov
-- Andreas Athanasiou
Darren Helm -- Luke Glendening -- Luke Witkowski
Danny DeKeyser -- Nick Jensen
Jonathan Ericsson -- Trevor Daley
Niklas Kronwall -- Mike Green
Jimmy Howard
Jared Coreau
Scratched:Xavier Ouellet, David Booth
Injured:Frans Nielsen (upper body)

Sharks projected lineup

Evander Kane -- Joe Pavelski -- Joonas Donskoi
Tomas Hertl -- Logan Couture -- Mikkel Boedker
Timo Meier -- Chris Tierney -- Kevin Labanc
Barclay Goodrow --
Eric Fehr
-- Marcus Sorensen
Joakim Ryan -- Brent Burns
Marc-Edouard Vlasic -- Justin Braun
Brenden Dillon -- Dylan DeMelo
Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched:Tim Heed, Paul Martin, Jannik Hansen
Injured: Joe Thornton (knee), Joel Ward (shoulder), Melker Karlsson (lower body)

Status report

Nielsen skated again but will miss his third straight game since he was injured March 6 against the Boston Bruins. ... Karlsson will miss his third straight game. ... Ward continued skating but has yet to be medically cleared to play and will miss his 15th straight game.

Stat pack

The Sharks are 10-4-2 in their past 16 games against the Red Wings.