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CALGARY — Yes, that was Journey's Don't Stop Believing playing over the loudspeaker system, just minutes before the Calgary Flames took to the ice Sunday night against the San Jose Sharks with their playoff lives on the line.
Hey, if it was good enough for the final episode of The Sopranos, it was good enough for the Flames, too.
Needing a win to force a seventh and deciding game in their NHL Western Conference quarter-final series, the Flames received goals from Owen Nolan and Daymond Langkow en route to a 2-0 win over the Sharks, squaring the series at three games each. The deciding game in a highly entertaining and bitterly contested series will be Tuesday night in San Jose.
"It's a different feeling when you come to the rink knowing it could be your last game of the year," Flames captain Jarome Iginla said afterward. "We faced it now once and we know we're going to need the same type of effort [in San Jose]. They're going to be desperate the way we were tonight. It's going to be fun. You can look back at different points in the series, but to have it come down to Game 7? Pretty cool."
Calgary Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff makes a save on San Jose Sharks forward Ryane Clowe in the first period during Game 6 in Calgary on Sunday. (Patrick Price/Reuters)
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- Calgary Flames
- San Jose Sharks
- Curtis Brown
- Eric Godard
- Kristian Huselius
- Jarome Iginla
- Miikka Kiprusoff
- Daymond Langkow
- Matthew Lombardi
- Kyle McLaren
- Evgeni Nabokov
- Owen Nolan
- Eric Nystrom
- Robyn Regehr
- Jeremy Roenick
- Alex Tanguay
- Joe Thornton
- Jim Vandermeer
After relying heavily on Iginla for the first five games of the series, the Flames played a much better overall team game Sunday night. Goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff had perhaps his strongest outing since the second game of the series and coach Mike Keenan's plea for secondary scoring was heard. Nolan scored his second of the series and Langkow his third, and from there it was left for the defence and Kiprusoff to keep the high-scoring Sharks at bay.
It wasn't a really lively crowd until the final five minutes or so, but it wasn't really a lively game, either. Calgary was more efficient than spectacular and more workmanlike than showmanlike, which seems to play to the Flames' style far better.
"All year, we've been a better team when we just go after it," Iginla said. "Tonight, we went after it right from the start. We didn't sit back. We didn't wait. We put the puck in there and then we tried to chase it down and force turnovers. I thought we were able to force a few through hard work and determination. We blocked shots when we had to. It was a good game for us.
"It feels good, but we know what lies ahead. We have more work to do."
As Iginla said, the Flames also came out hitting and had the Sharks' top players off balance most of the game, making them pay a physical price at every turn.
"There was no excuse," Sharks forward Ryan Clowe said. "I just didn't think we worked that hard. Our game is strong fore-checking. That's where we get our opportunities and we didn't really create too much tonight."
Keenan took a calculated risk, dropping tough guy Eric Godard from the lineup in order to dress seven defencemen. For the first handful of shifts, Jim Vandermeer played left wing on the top line with Iginla, but gradually his ice time gave way to Kristian Huselius as the opening period progressed.
"The first couple of shifts, I was a little nervous," Vandermeer said, "but once you get into it, you're just playing hockey. I know what they wanted me to do — get the puck in deep and fore-check and throw my body around. I know what I was sent out there to do, so I'll just go and do it."
Huselius, Iginla and Matthew Lombardi had one lengthy shift in which they controlled play from start to finish. Keenan, so impressed by that, came right back with Huselius moments later and it paid off on Calgary's opening goal, which began with a crisp outlet pass from defenceman Robyn Regehr. Huselius carried the puck into the zone, and after goaltender Evgeni Nabokov blocked his backhand, Nolan found himself in the right place at the right time, fishing the puck out of Christian Ehrhoff's legs and firing it into the net. That goal, 11:33 into the opening period, was all that Calgary needed.
"It's always good to get the lead in these kinds of games," Huselius said. "We just kept working and kept them to the outside. They didn't get much. We kept playing really strong for 60 minutes."
The Sharks were better in the second period, but their efforts weren't rewarded on the score sheet, thanks in part to Kiprusoff's good work. On one play, with Calgary a man short, he picked a Joe Thornton shot out of the crowd with his glove hand. Another time, he stopped Clowe point-blank, after a soft feed from Thornton, the second time in the period the Sharks played with the man advantage.
"Yeah, you want to finish them off," Thornton said. "That was the plan, but they played well tonight. It's been a great series. You play hard for 82 games to get home-ice advantage in the seventh game, so hopefully we'll make that'll count for us."
Despite winning the two previous games in the series, Sharks coach Ron Wilson elected to make two lineup changes. Rismiller and Curtis Brown both drew into the Sharks' lineup in place of Kyle McLaren and Jeremy Roenick, respectively.
"Every team that makes the playoffs is good," Thornton said, defending his team's play. "They're a great team, we're a great team and it's been a great series. It's going to be a lot of fun to play in Game 7."
By The Numbers
24-9 — Calgary's hefty edge in hits through the first two periods.
5 — Out of nine second-period shots by the Sharks, the number taken by Ryan Clowe.
1,402 — Number of days between playoff shutouts for Flames' goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, dating back to the '04 Stanley Cup final against Tampa Bay
