Sharks defeat Red Wings, pad lead for second place in Pacific

SAN JOSE --The San Jose Sharks strengthened their hold on second place in the Pacific Division with a 5-3 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at SAP Center on Monday.
Timo Meier and Chris Tierney each had a goal and an assist, and Joe Pavelski and Dylan DeMelo each had two assists for the Sharks, who went 4-2-0 on their homestand. Martin Jones made 23 saves.

"I think this was an important win for us," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "Obviously, we got a tough schedule coming up, we go on the road and some tough buildings. We did enough to get the win. It wasn't a textbook game, but we did a lot of good stuff, and those are difficult opponents to play. I thought the Red Wings played really hard. They've got a lot of speed."
WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Sharks highlights]
San Jose (37-23-9) trails the Vegas Golden Knights by 12 points for first place in the Pacific but leads the Los Angeles Kings by two and the Anaheim Ducks by three.
"When you get your opportunities, you have to keep trying to build that," Pavelski said. "You know how hard to work to get a couple of points ahead."
Trevor Daley, Gustav Nyquist and Henrik Zetterberg each had a goal and an assist, and Tyler Bertuzzi had three assists for the Red Wings, who lost their seventh straight game (0-6-1), matching their season high. Jimmy Howard made 29 saves.
Detroit (26-32-11) trails the New Jersey Devils by 15 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"We want to go win a game [at the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday]," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "We've lost too many games in a row here, so we need to win that, we need to go with some type of desperation. We need to keep playing the right kind of hockey that allows us to grow."
Meier redirected Mikkel Boedker's shot from the slot past Howard on the power play to make it 4-2 at 5:12 of the third period.
Zetterberg scored on a wrist shot at 5:53 to cut the Sharks lead to 4-3, but Tierney scored into an empty net to make it 5-3 with 1:34 left.

DeMelo said the Sharks' effort level was "high," despite facing a struggling team.
"At this time of the year, any time you don't bring your 'A' effort and your 'A' game, you're not going to come out on top against anybody," DeMelo said. "They're no slouch either. They've got a lot of skill and speed. We kind of fell into a trap a little bit there in the second period and gave up a lot of odd-man rushes, but I think we cleaned it up and had a real good third period."
The Red Wings took a 1-0 lead at 5:01 of the first period on Daley's wrist shot from the slot.
Joonas Donskoi scored at 10:55 on an odd-man rush to tie it 1-1.
The Sharks took a 2-1 lead at 12:39 when Eric Fehr deflected Brenden Dillon's point shot past Howard. The goal was Fehr's first with the Sharks, who acquired him in a trade from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 20.

"We got the start that we wanted, and then we made some key mistakes there in the first (period), some turnovers, and resulted in them doing some forechecking and getting some goals," Howard said.
Kevin Labanc increased San Jose's lead to 3-1 at 1:39 of the second period, poking a rebound between Howard's pads.
Nyquist scored at 5:05 of the second to make it 3-2.

Goal of the game

Meier's goal at 5:12 of the third period.

Save of the game

Jones stopping Luke Glendening with 1:54 left in the second period.

Highlight of the game

Donskoi's goal at 10:55 of the first period.

They said it

"We have to limit our mistakes. If we're going to be successful out there, we can't make the mistakes that we do because they kill us." -- Red Wings goaltender Jimmy Howard
"This whole homestand we could have started a little bit better, but it didn't really stop us from playing and competing, and we found ways to win games. Tonight, we understood that if we win this game, it would be a pretty successful homestand. That's what we did. Now we can leave with a little momentum and take this game on the road." -- Sharks captain Joe Pavelski

Need to know

Zetterberg's goal was his 336th in the NHL, passing Ted Lindsay for fifth in Red Wings history. ... The Sharks have not allowed a power-play goal in eight games after going 2-for-2 on the penalty kill against the Red Wings. They have killed 13 straight penalties.

What's next

Red Wings: At the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday (10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN360, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Sharks: At the Edmonton Oilers on Wednesday (9:30 p.m. ET; SN1, SNW, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)