Gene Principe

DETROIT -- If you used the word jumbo to describe the size of San Jose's victory in Game 3 in Detroit you could also use it to describe Joe Thornton's play on the winning goal for the Sharks. He set up Patrick Marleau for the game-winner. Thornton also scored a goal in Game 3 and in the previous he scored the winner.

The centreman, who's been no stranger to playoff scrutiny, is working at shaking the label of being a regular-season stud and a post-season pushover.

"I think things have just been better for me because I'm healthy," Thornton said. "I'm feeling good and I think that's why things are going my way."

They weren't going Jimmy Howard's way in Game 3. He was helpless on the winning goal but he was hopeless on what turned out be the game-tying goal by Logan Couture. "It was a bad bounce and something you have to get past," The Red Wings netminder said. "And you have to move on. What I have to do tomorrow is give my team a chance to win."

A win is the only option the Wings have if they want their season to continue. That would be one of four victories they would need in order to become the third team in NHL history to rebound from a 3-0 series deficit and win it. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and the 1975 New York Islanders are the only squads to have accomplished that rare feat.

"I don't remember the year but when I was coaching Spokane in the WHL we trailed Portland 3-0 in games but we came back to win that series in 7," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock explained. "It doesn't happen often but maybe it's been long enough for it to be our turn."

Babcock was on the other side of the broom in 2003 when Anaheim swept Detroit and he was in charge of the Ducks.

San Jose has won six in a row and with one more win they will advance to their second conference final. The other was 2004 when they lost out to Calgary.