Pavelski scores twice, Thornton gets winner as Sharks beat Red Wings 4-3 in Game 2

Thornton’s first goal leads Sharks past Wings 4-3

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A third-period comeback, a broken stick that leads to the winning goal. This seemed to be just the type of playoff game the San Jose Sharks would lose in the past, only this year’s bunch got the good fortune.

Joe Thornton scored his first goal of the postseason after an odd-man rush set up when Nicklas Lidstrom broke his stick and the Sharks beat the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 on Sunday night to take a 2-0 lead in the second-round series.

“You need breaks,” Thornton said. “But I think you make your breaks like we did tonight.”

That didn’t seem to happen in playoffs past as the Sharks have failed to make it out of the second round despite having the second-best regular-season record over the past five years.

The biggest reason for the change is the play of Joe Pavelski, who scored two more goals to increase his playoff-leading total to nine and set up Ryane Clowe’s between-the-legs score to continue a breakthrough postseason for the player no longer known as “Little Joe.”

Pavelski is the first player to have three straight multi-goal games in the playoffs since Mario Lemieux did it for Pittsburgh in 1992.

“It’s good to see pucks go in the net,” Pavelski said. “It’s good to work hard and get rewarded. It always feels good to chip in. There’s a lot more to go though.”

The Sharks head to Detroit for Game 3 on Tuesday night with the series lead in part because Lidstrom broke his stick attempting a slap shot in the offensive zone midway through the third period.

Dany Heatley came up with the loose puck, skated up ice on a 3-on-2 break and fired a shot into Jimmy Howard’s pads. Thornton beat Brian Rafalski to the rebound in the crease and knocked in the winner.

“This is what you think about when you’re laying in bed a lot of times and you can’t sleep,” Pavelski said. “You want to score points. You don’t know if they will keep coming like that. You can’t worry about that. As soon as you feel you shouldn’t be doing it, that’s when it does stop.”

Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom and Lidstrom scored for the Red Wings, who were unable to hold onto a 3-2 lead heading into the third in part because they committed too many penalties.

Pavelski tied it early in the third when he poked in a rebound that was in the crease with the Sharks on a two-man advantage that he had set up. With Todd Bertuzzi already in the box for holding Marc-Edouard Vlasic in the offensive zone, Pavelski drew a tripping call on Niklas Kronwall that gave San Jose the 5-on-3 power play for 1:20.

“Obviously he’s in the zone right now,” coach Todd McLellan said. “Everything he touches seems to go in the net. He had 11 shots on goal. He feels very comfortable. But he’s earned that. He works hard on every shift and he’s diligent. He’s a catalyst right now.”

Pavelski scored what proved to be the winner in the opener on another two-man advantage early in the third period that had Detroit coach Mike Babcock steaming. He was more upset at his team after this game, when the Sharks had a 10-4 advantage on power plays, including one to end the game for too many men on the ice.

“The reality is that you can’t have momentum if only half your players can get on the ice because they are sitting in the penalty box all night long,” Babcock said.

Evgeni Nabokov made 28 saves for San Jose, including a sharp glove stop on Datsyuk early in the third to keep the Sharks’ deficit at one goal.

The Sharks have won five straight games since Dan Boyle’s pass deflected off a Colorado stick and into his own net in Game 3 of the first round. That’s a sign they might finally be shedding the label of postseason underachievers. To do that, they still need to knock off the Red Wings, who have ruled the Western Conference by going to six of the past 14 Stanley Cup finals. No other team in the conference has been to the finals more than twice in that span.

“It’s just an easygoing feeling in the room right now with a lot of confidence,” Clowe said. “We feel like we’re going to get it done and we did.”

Patrick Marleau returned from an illness that sidelined him for Game 1 but was not back to the form he had when he scored a team-leading 44 goals in the regular season for San Jose. He did win the faceoff that led to Pavelski’s first goal and rejoined Thornton and Heatley on the gold-medal line for the third period.

Marleau also committed the boarding penalty at the end of the first period that led to a key goal for Detroit. With Nabokov trying to move Holmstrom from in front of the net, Lidstrom fired a shot from the point that sneaked in for the even-strength goal just as Marleau’s penalty ended. It was Lidstrom’s fourth goal of the playoffs and first since celebrating his 40th birthday on Wednesday.

Holmstrom’s net presence led to Detroit’s second goal when he tipped in Rafalski’s shot from the point on the power play to tie it at 2 in the first period.

NOTES: Red Wings F Patrick Eaves was scratched because of an arm injury. Jason Williams got the call, getting his first action since Game 1 in the first round. … Sharks F Jed Ortmeyer was scratched to make room for Marleau’s return.