DETROIT -- With their collection of highly skilled players, it would seem the Detroit Red Wings would fare better in one-on-one showdowns against goaltenders.

But they have not fared well in shootouts this season, losing some valuable points, including one Thursday at Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings dominated the San Jose Sharks, firing a season-high 52 shots at Evgeni Nabokov. But they left with a bit of an empty feeling, losing

3-2 in a shootout, in which Patrick Marleau scored the lone goal.

“We obviously got to get better at it,” said Red Wings coach Mike Babcock, whose team fell to 4-8 in shootouts.

Said Detroit goaltender Jimmy Howard: “It’s just not going our way. It’s unfortunate. We just got to continue to work on it in practice.”

Pavel Datsyuk, Jason Williams and Todd Bertuzzi failed to score against Nabokov in the shootout. Marleau scored on the last attempt to win it, as the Red Wings missed a chance to sweep the season series from the Western Conference-leading Sharks (3-0-1).

Babcock said he thinks injuries earlier this season to a couple of the team’s shootout regulars, Henrik Zetterberg and Williams, has contributed to the poor record.

“I’d like to think we’d do better in shootouts, I’d like to think we’d win more,” Babcock said. “But there’s two parts to it: there’s stopping it and scoring on it. We just got to do a better job when we get those opportunities.

“I’d like not to get those opportunities. We should have scored on the four-on-three power play (in overtime) and won the game.”

Including overtime, the Red Wings are 6-12 in games decided after regulation.

Williams allowed Detroit to get to overtime by scoring at 12:55 of the third period to tie it at 2-2. He whipped in a wrist shot from the faceoff circle. The puck went in and out of the net so fast the goal light did not illuminate and play continued. A video review at the next stoppage confirmed the goal.

“We did battle back and get one point out of it, but I thought we had some quality chances to win the game, too,” Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. “Their goalie was the difference. He made some great saves.”

Said Howard: “There’s nothing wrong with the way we played tonight. Guys did an absolute fantastic job in front of me. We deserved a better fate. If we keep playing like that, we’re going to break through.”

The Red Wings are winless in their past four games (0-2-2) and 4-6-6 in their past 16.

They outplayed the Sharks by a wide margin in the first period, outshooting them 19-9, but trailed 2-1 after Dwight Helminen scored with 9.7 seconds left in the period. Helminen, who was left open in the slot area after Jonathan Ericsson was caught out of position, took a pass from Torrey Mitchell and buried a shot past Howard.

Johan Franzen had opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 12:13. He took a pass from Zetterberg during a three-on-two rush and snapped a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that deflected in off Nabokov’s glove.

It was Franzen’s second game back after a four-month absence following knee surgery and his first goal since Oct. 8.

The lead was short-lived. Joe Thornton tied it at 12:38. He corralled the rebound of a shot by Niclas Wallin and fought off a check from Lidstrom to tuck it inside the right goal post.

“Even though we didn’t win, I felt our guys will leave here with confidence, knowing they played well, they played with good tempo and looked like a hockey team,” Babcock said.

The Red Wings host Ottawa on Saturday before the two-week Olympic break. Babcock continues to have an optimistic outlook.

“I like having Mule (Franzen) back, with Homer (Tomas Holmstrom, back from injury), we had better balance, we had a big goal out of Williams, we’re getting to have more weapons,” Babcock said. “We haven’t scored all year long. I think we’re the lowest-scoring team in the Western Conference (12th out of 15 teams). I think that’s about to change here."