Sharks lose to Red Wings, fail to gain in Pacific

SAN JOSE -- The San Jose Sharks missed a chance to gain ground in the Pacific Division, losing their season-high sixth straight game, 3-2 to the Detroit Red Wings at SAP Center on Monday.

The Sharks (43-24-9) remained six points behind the first-place Calgary Flames and five points ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights. The Flames lost 3-0 at home to the Los Angeles Kings. The Golden Knights lost 3-1 at the St. Louis Blues.
It is the first time San Jose has lost six games in a row (0-5-1) since March 16-25, 2017 (0-6-0).
"We got to fix it," forward Logan Couture said. "There's certain things we need to do better. As a whole, I think our compete and 1-on-1 battles and all that need to go way up.
"It's frustrating to lose six in a row. We're too good of a team to go on a slide like this. These losses at home are not good, especially this one tonight. I thought we'd come with a better effort."
WATCH: [All Red Wings vs. Sharks highlights]
Evander Kane and Tomas Hertl scored in the third period, and Martin Jones made 20 saves for San Jose, which has clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I didn't think we had great energy until the third period," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "I thought we had desperation in the third, but we need it for 60 minutes."
Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou and Christoffer Ehn scored, and Jonathan Bernier made 39 saves for the Red Wings (28-38-10), who are 4-1-0 in their past five games but have been eliminated from playoff contention.
"We're here to battle," Larkin said. "We want to play for each other and we want to play for next year, and our leaders make sure we're ready every game. So guys have opportunities in front of them, and the opportunity right now is to prove themselves in this league, so these guys coming in now are doing a great job battling and playing hard for us."

Larkin scored 38 seconds into the game to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. He took a pass in stride from Anthony Mantha, skated past San Jose defensemen Brenden Dillon, and scored with a wrist shot from close range.
"It was the first shift of the game they scored, and it seems like that's been happening too often lately," Couture said. "We're falling behind 1-0 early, and then you're fighting to get back in it."
Athanasiou scored his Red Wings-leading 29th goal to make it 2-0 at 15:37 of the second period, capitalizing on a turnover in the neutral zone by Sharks defenseman Joakim Ryan. Athanasiou took a pass from rookie forward Taro Hirose and scored on a breakaway with a backhand.
Ehn scored shorthanded from the low slot at 8:35 of the third period to give Detroit a 3-0 lead.
"I think it shows that when we put the effort in and we work for 60 minutes, we can compete against any team, and we showed that again tonight," Bernier said.

Kane cut it to 3-1 at 8:55 with a power-play goal, and Hertl scored with 4.7 seconds left for the 3-2 final.
"From my view, I thought we just gave them too much respect," Kane said. "Coming into this game, we'd lost five (straight). I thought we just backed off. We had one guy forechecking and four guys sitting back. We didn't forecheck as a group of five. If you don't do that, you're not going to turn the puck over.
"We didn't create enough 5-on-5. I think we're too predictable right now. In the offensive zone, we got to mix things up and be a little more deceptive, and hungrier."

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They said it

"Obviously, with the group we have, it's a whole bunch of our future making an impact on the game, and I think they're growing." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill
"I don't know if it's mental. It's work. It's desperation. I don't know if there's a complacency about where we're sitting in the standings or what, but we've got to get out of it. The only way to get out of it is to work out of it." -- Sharks coach Peter DeBoer

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Need to know

Hirose has had an assist in each of his first four NHL games. … Red Wings forward Thomas Vanek was scratched with a mid-body injury. … Detroit defenseman Jonathan Ericsson returned to the lineup after missing four games with a lower-body injury and had a plus-1 rating and eight hits in 17:20 of ice time. … Defenseman Dylan McIlrath made his Red Wings debut, one day after being called up from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League. He was plus-1 with two hits and four blocked shots in 14:42. … Sharks forward Gustav Nyquist played against his former team for the first time since being traded by the Red Wings on Feb. 24. He had two shots on goal and was minus-2 in 16:49. … Sharks forward Barclay Goodrow played his 200th NHL game.

What's next

Red Wings: At the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG-B, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Sharks: Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday (10:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, NBCSCA+, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)