Red Wings 3, Sharks 1
Valtteri Filppula snapped a tie with 7:28 remaining in the third period as the third-seeded Detroit Red Wings forced a decisive seventh game in their Western Conference semifinal series against the second-seeded San Jose Sharks with a 3-1 home victory on Tuesday.
Henrik Zetterberg and Darren Helm also scored and Jimmy Howard made 24 saves for the Red Wings, who have rallied from a 3-0 series deficit with two consecutive third-period comebacks.
Game 7 is at the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Thursday.
Zetterberg forged a 1-1 tie at 10:38 of the third when he deflected defenseman Niklas Kronwall's shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Antti Niemi for his 48th career playoff goal. Filppula sent the crowd at Joe Louis Arena into a frenzy less than two minutes later as he snapped the deadlock by converting a backhand pass from Pavel Datsyuk in the right circle.
Helm sealed the win with an empty-netter with 65 seconds to play.
Calder Trophy finalist Logan Couture tallied and Niemi stopped 42 shots for San Jose, which fell to 4-14 in Game 6s.
Outshot 32-13 after two periods, the Sharks opened the scoring at 3:54 of the third.
Dany Heatley took a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that Howard stopped. Couture whacked the rebound between the netminder's pads and the puck trickled over the goal line just before Howard and Jiri Hudler could stop it.