San Jose Sharks 2, Detroit Red Wings 3 FINAL OT

DETROIT (AP) - Detroit defenseman Jiri Fischer just wanted to get a shot off as quickly as he could. It just happened to be in the right spot.

Fischer's goal with 50.9 seconds left in overtime lifted the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Monday night.

His wrist shot from the top of the left circle beat Sharks' goalie Evgeni Nabokov just under the crossbar after Fischer took a pass from Mathieu Schneider at the other point.

``He made a tremendous pass, right between two guys,'' Fischer said. ``It was on my backhand, so I had to pull it back. I got it off as quick as I could ... It was a great screen (in front of the net) ... It was a lucky shot.''

Brendan Shanahan and Mikael Samuelsson both scored power-play goals for the Red Wings, who improved to 6-1-0. Goaltender Manny Legace made 26 saves for Detroit.

``I thought he was excellent tonight in the early going, when he had to be,'' said Detroit coach Mike Babcock about Legace's performance.

Nils Ekman and Marco Sturm had goals for San Jose and Nabokov stopped 31 shots.

Sturm tied it at 2 with a power-play goal with 9:10 left in the second period when he tipped Kyle McLaren's high shot past Legace with the shaft of his stick.

``We battled pretty hard five-on-five. We were right with them, maybe even better,'' said Sharks' defenseman Brad Stuart. ``We couldn't get going on the power play, even though we did score. We had a lot of chances.''

San Jose was 1-for-8 with the man-advantage.

The Sharks' opened the scoring on Ekman's goal with 7:31 left in the first period. He capitalized on a turnover by Red Wings' defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom in the neutral zone and scored on a breakaway.

``The first 10 minutes, they took it to us,'' said Legace. ``The second period was even. But in the third, we took it to them.''

Detroit answered back with two power-play goals. Shanahan scored his fourth of the season with 4:50 left in the first period to tie it 1-1 when he put in the rebound of Jason Woolley's shot. Samuelsson gave Detroit the lead with 52.3 seconds remaining in the period with his fifth goal, when he put in the carom off of the endboards of Jason Williams' shot.

The game almost went to the first shootout for both teams.

``I wanted that shootout so bad,'' said San Jose coach Ron Wilson. ``I had my lineup card all filled out.''

Notes: Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman missed the game because of a groin injury. ... Detroit C Kris Draper was hit in the face with a puck off the stick of Sturm 1:35 into the second period and Red Wings' winger Tomas Holmstrom was hit in the face with a clearing attempt by teammate Andreas Lilja with 3:30 remaining in the same period. Both got stitches. Holmstrom returned, but Draper didn't and underwent precautionary tests. ... Ekman played with the Detroit Vipers of the now defunct International Hockey League in 1999-2000 and 2000-01.