If Detroit has any designs on winning its fifth straight Western Conference regular season title, then it better find a way to earn a win against the San Jose Sharks Wednesday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Wings have pulled away in the Central Division and have made slight gains on the Sharks, yet remain five points back with two more games played than San Jose heading into action Wednesday. With this being the final meeting between the two teams, it’s obvious that this is as close to a must-win game that Detroit will face until the postseason.

It’s not as if the Wings have slacked off at any time this season. Their worst month was January (and really that was limited to a late slump), and I doubt the 7-4-2 mark last month sent any of their fans into therapy. In fact, Detroit, one of the model organizations of the league, is on its way to bettering its record for the second straight season. Yet, San Jose is showing no cracks in its game, making it next to impossible for Detroit to gain any traction in the standings. Are the Wings locked into the No. 2 seed in the West? We’ll have a much clearer idea after this battle.

There are a couple of factors working against Detroit here: it’s dropped two of the last three vs. San Jose; and the Wings aren’t exactly soaring right now. Sure, they had rhymed off six straight wins earlier this month, but have been uncharacteristically middling over the past five games (2-2-1) after getting dumped by 5-2 in Minnesota on Saturday.

Some things to watch for in this game:

• Claude Lemieux will not get a standing ovation in his return to Motor City after a five-year retirement. The 43-year-old super pest is among the most hated men in Detroit history. Something tells me the half decade Lemieux spent in his rocking chair hasn’t changed that.
• Detroit’s goaltending situation is in a bit of a mess right now. Prospect Jimmy Howard was brought up from Grand Rapids to take the place of the slumping Chris Osgood, who has been given a “mental breather.” Howard, who is enjoying an excellent season, didn’t fare well in his season debut on Saturday as he got rocked early, but he is someone to keep an eye on for the future. With the aging Osgood suffering through his worst NHL season, Ty Conklin has proved to be a real saviour for the Wings this season, and he’s definitely someone you want to consider adding if you need a goalie. In our pre-season rankings, we expressed concern over Osgood’s ability to handle a huge workload, but certainly didn’t see this collapse coming. Osgood’s 10-day break will end Friday night when he goes back in net against the Kings. If Detroit has any hope of making a move on San Jose, it will need Osgood to return to his form from last season, or at least something resembling that. Conklin, meanwhile, will be looking to extend his 11-game home winning streak – a run that has matched the third best in Red Wing history. Overall, he’s a perfect five-for-five when he starts in February. Like I said, Conklin has been an absolutely lifesaver for the Wings.
• This is a battle pitting the top two power plays in the NHL against each other. However, Detroit didn’t exactly look like the best power play team in the league Saturday, going 0-for-5 with the man advantage, but had gone 9-for-17 in the three games before that loss. And therein lies the difference between these two teams: while San Jose – with the fourth best penalty killing unit in the league – is capable of shutting down Detroit’s power play, the same can’t be said for the Wings, who are one of the worst penalty killing teams in the NHL. Advantage San Jose.
• Dan Cleary, who just keeps getting better since he arrived in Motown, is heating up with three goals and two assists in his past four games. Need a forward? He could be available, and while he isn’t racking up the +/- numbers he did last season, Cleary is headed for his first 45-point season, a total he should easily eclipse now that he’s been moved to the top line in Detroit. Now, if he can just learn to stay healthy, he could turn into a serious difference maker. A jaw injury cost him a good chunk of 2007-08, and this season it was an eye injury.
• Don’t look for the Wings to get shut down very often like Saturday, when the Wild held them to a pair of goals. Detroit definitely had its struggles when it limped out of January on a season-worst five-game losing skid, but since then, the Wings have turned it own, scoring 48 goals in 11 games while going 8-2-1. Having said that, this week is a tough test for Detroit’s NHL-leading offense, as it had to deal with Minnesota, and its second-best GAA in the NHL, and now San Jose, almost as good with the third best GAA.
• As great as he was last season in his debut with the Wings, Brian Rafalski has been even better this season as he puts together a career year, at least offensively, at the age of 35. He’s recorded assists in four straight games (six helpers in total), and going back even further, he has 12 points in his last eight games and has managed two or more points in half of those contests. He made the top 10 in our pre-season rankings, and although his +/- isn’t as high as we’d like, Rafalski certainly has been all that on offense.

Yesterday, we watched our beloved Tar Heels put up a bit of a fight (more than we expected, anyways) against 11th-ranked Notre Dame, ultimately going down 45-26. Suffering through another UNC football game (1-8, 0-5 vs. ACC) made us thank our lucky stars that NCAA basketball starts this week.

Anyways, here’s a couple of nuggets from the game:

• The Tar Heels may have found themselves a quarterback. Junior Joe Dailey, a former Nebraska Cornhusker who had to sit out all last year because of NCAA transfer rules, turned in a big performance (14-for-22, 213 yards, three TDs). Best of all, he wasn’t picked. Interceptions having been killing UNC this year. Of course, when you’re constantly facing third and about 30, you tend to toss a few picks. Dailey came in with seven of the Heels’ 15 for the year, and he had managed just two TDs before yesterday’s bonanza.
• Fighting Irish QB Brady Quinn picked apart UNC for a season-high 346 yards. a Huge 43-yard TD pass midway through the third ended any hope the Heels had for a major upset. The senior is supposed to get a starring role in an upcoming movie planned about the life of George Gipp. Film one for the Gipper? Why not.
• Tar Heel WR Jesse Holley is having a tough senior season, but yesterday’s 12-yard TD reception capped a huge eight-play, 80-yard drive as UNC tied the game 7-7 with under six to play in the first. For Holley, the TD was his second of the season, matching a career best.
• The Heels had not one, but two huge scoring plays. Try a 90-yard kickoff return and a 72-yard TD strike.
• The Irish keep improving. They’re now 8-1 on the season and 5-0 at home and are looking like a serious force.
• Inability to convert on third down, as mentioned above, has been a Carolina problem all year. Yesterday was more of the same, as the Heels went 4-for-13 on third downs compared to the Irish, who were 8-for-14. That’s the game, folks.
• Notre Dame’s first four red zone possession resulted in three TDs and one field. Damn efficient.
• Tar Heels showed some life, coming back from 24-7 down to pull within 31-19. Hey, gotta take something positive from this game.
• Lame duck coach John Bunting (actually, he’s worse than a lame duck — he’s already been fired) is coaching the season out, but rumours abound that the Heels are close to hiring Butch Davis as his replacement. Davis has coached the Hurricanes and the Cleveland Browns. The program needs a serious shaking up, so hopefully Davis is up to the task.

With that in mind, here’s what I took from yesterday’s exciting Bengals-Falcons game, won by Atlanta 29-27.

As Atlanta shifts its attack to more of an air-based offense, Ashley Lelie is quickly becoming a more integral part of the team’s plan. In the last two weeks, Lelie has seven receptions for 113 yards, almost matching his previous five weeks’ worth of numbers.

Despite missing the first two games of the year, Bengals’ receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh is on pace for 956 yards, which would top his total from 2005. Better yet, with Chad Johnson struggling, relatively, Houshmandzadeh has become a primary red zone target, on pace to break his career best with nine TDs. Is Johnson or he the team’s top target? It’s a good problem for the Bengals to have.

Speaking of Johnson, he really needs to drink more water or something. Not once, but twice he has to go to the locker room for an IV fluid replenishment. Uh, yeah. After the second time he headed back in to the locker room, the RotoWidow turned to me and said ‘he must have been drinking a lot last night.’ To which I laughed, considering her very state on Friday night, and said ‘I guess you know the signs, eh?’ The RotoWidow confirmed that, yes, ‘unfortunately,’ she does recognize that pain.

Warrick Dunn came into the game as the NFL’s fourth-leading rusher, but you wouldn’t know it the last two weeks. His YPC was 2.7 against the Steelers and just 2.9 yesterday. As long as the Falcons keep succeeding in the air, the run won’t need to be as featured, unless the game is a blowout.

Carson Palmer is clearly coming on the last couple of weeks. He started conservatively, hitting 5-of-7 passes in the first quarter, but for only got 37 yards. All told, he enjoyed his finest game of the season with a 24-for-36 performance for 266 yards, two TDs and no picks, yet he was definitely outplayed by Michael Vick. Who saw that coming?

Vick, however, is getting a ton of protection from the O-line and he’s capitalizing big time. He also has his best day of the year, going 20-for-28 for 291 yards, with three TDs and no interceptions. And don’t worry, Vick was still running wild, gaining 55 yards on nine carries.

The Falcons absolutely dominated in the second half, and it was truly impressive how they took over the game despite not getting much from their ground game. Atlanta wound up scoring on four of its last seven possessions. Vick is maturing along with the Falcon air game and this team suddenly looks like it can put points on the board against anyone. The Falcons are now tied for first in the NFC South thanks to the Ravens bitch-slapping New Orleans yesterday.

That victory by Baltimore, meanwhile, combined with the Bengals’ loss, has the Ravens suddenly alone in first place in the AFC North.