A period of eight seconds elapsed in the second quarter in which two goals were scored and the tide of battle changed. Logan Couture picked up his first of two goals on the night off of a Ryane Clowe pass from the faceoff win with a wrist shot to beat Jimmy Howard. This came eight seconds after Niclas Wallin put the puck in net (originally thought to be a tip-in for Dany Heatley) off of a Justin Braun pass, who picked it up off of Jamal Mayers from ... the original Wallin shot.
Couture would add a second goal in the third period to put the Sharks up by three, which they wouldn't relinquish. Dany Heatley was part of the Sharks three-goal second period when he utilized extreme patience to beat Howard one-on-one near the end of the period. Joe Thornton got the scoring started for San Jose with a shorthanded goal off of a beautiful pass from Dany Heatley on the two-on-one.
Antti Niemi was stellar, keeping the Red Wings scoreless in periods two and three after giving up two in the first. He was good for 25-of-27 saves with a .926 save percentage. Jimmy Howard saved 30-of-35 in a losing effort, with a .857 percentage.
Sharks coach Todd McLellan said that the first period was probably the worst of their season, and something happened during the first intermission. The Sharks played slow, lazy hockey in the first period outside of an initial scoring opportunity at the very beginning of the matchup, but after the intermission they came out fast, with energy and didn't let up for the next forty minutes of play. They took almost every one-on-one and beat their guy, Niemi was lockdown and the Sharks were able to walk out of Joe Louis Arena with a win.