Red Wings forward Dan Cleary has been seeking his 100th career NHL goal for some time -- too long a time, as far as he's concerned.

Cleary has gone 12 games without a goal. Mired in an early season slump, he has just one goal, four assists and a minus-6 rating in 14 games.

He has not been skating as well as he normally does and hasn't been crashing the net like the team expects him to.

"Try to make sure I keep skating, good on the forecheck, that's how I create my offense," Cleary said. "It's not based on being in the high slot and shooting, it's always around the net. I got to make sure I stick around there."

Coming off a strong playoff performance (nine goals, 15 points, plus-17 rating), Cleary was hampered by a groin strain much of the preseason. He scored 20 goals for the Wings in 2006-07 and '07-08, and the club is counting on him to help compensate for the offense it has lost with off-season free-agent departures and early season injuries to key forwards Johan Franzen and Valtteri Filppula.

RED WINGS 2, SHARKS 1 (SO): Lacking the prolific offense they've had in the past due to free-agent losses and key injuries, the Wings need to win by limiting turnovers, doing a better job killing penalties, getting solid goaltending and making every goal count.

That's what they did Thursday, as Henrik Zetterberg tied the game at 5:38 of the third period and then, along with Pavel Datsyuk, scored in the shootout. Chris Osgood made 33 saves and stopped both of the Sharks' shootout attempts.

Copyright (C) 2009 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.