CALGARY, Alberta, 18 May 2004 — Vincent Damphousse and Patrick Marleau teamed up for power-play goals and Evgeni Nabokov stopped 27 shots as the San Jose Sharks beat the Calgary Flames 4-2 to even up the Western Conference final on Sunday.
In a best-of-series where home ice has proven to be no advantage, the teams travel to San Jose for Game Five on Monday all square at 2-2.
The Flames won the first two in Silicon Valley and the Sharks dominated Games Three and Four in Calgary.
San Jose doused a tired-looking Flames club with hard work — winning most battles in front of both nets and capitalizing on Calgary penalties, especially in the second period.
Nabokov also had a second straight impressive performance in goal after Thursday’s shutout, quieting a Pengrowth Saddledome crowd that is hungry after the Flames missed the Stanley Cup playoffs the previous seven seasons.
Flames netminder Miikka Kiprusoff, unflappable for most of the team’s surprising 2004 playoff run, was rattled by the Sharks in the second, allowing all four goals.
Coach Darryl Sutter pulled him for the third, giving back-up Roman Turek his first ice time of the postseason.
Both teams had struggled on power plays in the series, but the Sharks hit pay dirt twice with the man advantage.
“We focused on getting it in deep and getting the puck back, making a few good passes and throwing it at the net and playing smart out there,” Sharks defenseman Scott Hannan said.
“I thought it worked well.”
Mike Rathje opened the scoring for San Jose early in the second period, firing a slapshot from the point past a sprawling Kiprusoff.
Jerome Iginla answered about five minutes later with Calgary’s first goal on Nabokov in five periods of hockey.
Just over a minute later, San Jose’s Jonathan Cheechoo ended the crowd’s euphoria with an unassisted goal.
His team’s success in preventing quality chances for Calgary led to frustration among the Flames and several Sharks power plays during the rest of the period.
Damphousse, who had the winner in Game Three, took a pass from line mate Marleau and scored his seventh of the playoffs. The duo teamed up for the fourth marker with just over a minute left in the second. This time, Marleau scored.
Chris Simon notched the second goal for the Flames on two-man advantage with less than a minute left in the game.
It was too little, too late. Calgary out-shot San Jose 29-19.
