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A healthier Red Wings team finished the 2010 – 11 NHL season with a 47-25-10 record and 104 points to win the Central Division title.

They earned the # 3 seed in the Western Conference for the Stanley Cup playoffs ( extending their professional sports record of post-season appearances to 20 seasons ), finishing behind the Vancouver Canucks ( 117 ) and San Jose Sharks ( 105 ).

The Wings again faced the Phoenix Coyotes in the first round of the playoffs, this time sweeping them 4 – 0 — making them the only team in the 2010-2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs to sweep the first round — and again moved on to play the Sharks in Round 2.

After losing the first three games of the series against the Sharks, the Red Wings won three consecutive games to force a Game 7, becoming just the eighth team in NHL history to accomplish the feat ( the Chicago Blackhawks became the seventh team to do so earlier in the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, against the Vancouver Canucks ).

The Red Wings lost Game 7 to the Sharks by a score of 3-2, and were eliminated.