Detroit's 3-game win streak on line when Red Wings host Sharks

DETROIT - The Detroit Red Wings are on a three-game winning streak and the San Jose Sharks are fresh off of being stunned by the team that beat them in the Stanley Cup Final last season.

The teams are scheduled to play at 7 p.m. Saturday at Joe Louis Arena. Both are 3-2-0.

After losing its first two games of the season, Detroit has reeled off three consecutive wins, the latest a 5-3 decision over the Nashville Predators Friday night at Joe Louis.

In that game, two players who have to produce a lot of offense for the Red Wings to be successful scored their first goals of the season.

Right winger Gustav Nyquist had a goal and an assist and left winger Tomas Tatar had a goal.

Tatar's goal, 1:10 into the third period, broke a tie and put Detroit ahead for good and Nyquist scored later in the period to make it 4-2.

"I'm just worried about one game at a time and I'm worried about getting better every day and I thought we took a step in getting better today," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said after Friday night's game. "I thought we did a real good job of spending time in their end. We did a real good job of winning puck battles. We did a real good job of reloading hard and getting back above people and when we do that, we're a real good team.

"I thought we transitioned well, I thought a lot of guys were playing. I thought we took a step forward. Now we got to take another step forward tomorrow."

Veteran fourth line left winger Drew Miller scored his second goal in two games Friday.

"We definitely had some times in the first couple of games here where we didn't play the way we wanted to play," Miller said. "We're cleaning that up and trying to play a 60-minute game. I think that's the biggest thing, just moving forward and finding the positives and continuing to build off of those."

Defenseman Ryan Sproul made his season debut for Detroit and had an assist on Justin Abdelkader's power-play goal in the second period. In his second NHL game, Sproul was even in 14:57 of ice time.

San Jose, which closes out a five-game road trip Saturday, lost 3-2 on the road to the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night after leading 2-0 going into the third period.

It was the first time under coach Pete DeBoer that the Sharks had lost in regulation time when they held a lead after two periods. They were 28-0-2 in the 2015-16 regular season, and 9-0 in the playoffs, when leading after 40 minutes.

"The biggest thing is we were playing for a 4-1 record going into that third," captain Joe Pavelski said. "Not because it was the Penguins. It's early in the year. It's not easy to start coming on the road with all of these games. Now we're staring at 3-2 and we move on."