CALGARY, Alberta, 21 May 2004 — Martin Gelinas scored his third series-winning goal of the playoffs to help the Calgary Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 3-1 Wednesday and earn their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals in 15 years.
The underdog Flames, who barely qualified for the playoffs, clinched the best-of-seven Western Conference finals 4-2 and now meet Tampa Bay or Philadelphia in the Stanley Cup. The Lightning lead the Flyers 3-2 in the East series.
Wednesday’s victory was Calgary’s only one at home in the Pengrowth Saddledome in the series with the Sharks.
The Flames last went to the Stanley Cup finals in 1989 when they took the championship against Montreal. Now they bear the burden of being the first Canadian team to vie for the NHL’s biggest prize since Vancouver in 1994.
“Not only are we representing Calgary, but Canada, and it’s an opportunity that doesn’t come very, very often,” Gelinas told reporters.
“We’ve just got to take the challenge and make the best out of it,” added Gelinas, who also posted series-winning goals against Vancouver and Detroit.
The Flames, coming off a 3-0 victory in San Jose, owned the momentum from the opening face-off, winning most of the battles in the corners and testing Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov early and often.
With a little more than a minute left in the first period, Jarome Iginla capitalized on a San Jose penalty to beat Nabokov for his 10th goal of the playoffs. The Flames captain is the postseason leader in goals.
Seven minutes into the second session, Gelinas took a pass from Craig Conroy and faked a slapshot on the breakaway before putting the puck between Nabokov’s pads.
“For our club this year, he’s an example for us in so many ways,” Iginla said of Gelinas. “He says he got lucky that went in but what a move he made.”
Three minutes later, San Jose’s Alyn McCauley scored on Miikka Kiprusoff, easing some of the din generated by the capacity crowd, the so-called “C of Red” that is giddy after the Flames missed the playoffs the previous seven seasons.
But that was all the Sharks could muster despite several brilliant saves by Nabokov, who kept his team in the game by stopping 26 shots.
Content to sit on its lead, Calgary bore down and controlled the puck throughout the third period, giving up few quality scoring chances.
Robyn Regehr added the third goal for the Flames with an empty netter as the final horn sounded.
