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Thanks to an Arena Football League game this weekend featuring the San Jose SaberCats, the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks will be back at it again tonight, playing the second game of their best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final series, 24 hours after Calgary won the opener 3-2.

Just why Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment (which owns both the Sharks and SaberCats) would schedule a football game on the first weekend of the NHL playoffs is anybody's guess.

Originally, the plan was for the Sharks to play on Saturday afternoon, and then give way to a late, late football game, but then, the realization set in: Overtime, in NHL playoffs, can sometimes last a long, long time.

So in the end, they opted to play back-to-back games off the start, a scheduling development that both teams seemed to embrace - the Sharks so that they could quickly regroup after an opening-night loss, the Flames so that they could build on the momentum of their opening-round victory.

"I like it," said Flames centre Craig Conroy, one of two players to return from injury for the opener (the other was Stephane Yelle), both of whom played significant roles in the Calgary victory.

"For our team, back-to-back hasn't been that bad this year. We actually enjoy it. We have a lot of young guys and it doesn't seem to affect us. Kipper (goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff) seems to not mind it; we've had a lot of them."

Indeed, Calgary played exactly a dozen back-to-back games in the regular season, and while they were only 6-6 in the first game, they were an impressive 8-4 in the second game.

Calgary won the opener against the Sharks, despite being out-shot 39-23. Considering the Flames held a 7-0 lead on the shot clock and a 2-0 lead on the scoreboard less than six minutes into the game, the momentum eventually turned in San Jose's direction. However, the Sharks scored only twice — on their first and last shots of the game. In between, Kiprusoff was brilliant; and was chosen the game's first star in a well-played, high-tempo match that suggests the rest of the series could be eminently entertaining. Four years ago, under similar circumstances, Calgary also won the opener of a series against the Sharks, with Kiprusoff turning in a 49-save performance to win in overtime.

"I felt all right," said Kiprusoff, afterwards. "There were a lot of shots, a lot of work. We did a pretty good job not to let them get too much open ice. I just have to trust the D. I was able to go out and challenge because I knew our D was coming to take care of sealing off the guys from the inside. That made my night a little easier."

Because of the short turnaround between the first and second games, the Sharks made Thursday morning's pre-game skate optional for their players, most of whom were expected to stay home and rest. As the visiting team, the Flames also scheduled an optional skate that was preceded by a mandatory team meeting.

Sharks' captain Joe Thornton, who along with Ryan Clowe, were the two best San Jose forwards in the game, will have his parents in attendance for tonight's game. Thornton's parents made their travel plans when it looked as if the Sharks were going to play Thursday-Saturday and couldn't change them. So they'll be here, cheering on their son, as the Sharks try to regroup.

"I don't mind it at all," said Thornton, when asked yesterday how he felt about the back-to-back games to open the series. "I wanted to play (Tuesday) already. I don't know about Washington — they've got to wait until Friday to play. So bang two off, get the series started and get the playoff jitters out of the way. Besides, we're used to playing two in two nights. We did it, probably 10 times during the season. It doesn't matter to us. Nobody's flying anywhere; nobody's catching anybody on jet lag. I thin it's exciting."

Sharks' coach Ron Wilson hinted that he would make a couple of roster moves and would probably insert Devin Setoguchi into the line-up, after he sat out the opener. Among the Sharks' forwards, Curtis Brown (7:24) and Jody Shelley (4:39) played the least. Wilson, who was generally pleased with his team's performance, apart from a couple of pivotal breakdowns that led to Calgary goals, also promised to get Jeremy Roenick more minutes.

"It's better to get back on the horse if you fell off," said Wilson. "If we continue to play like we did most of the game, the puck will go into the net."

Meanwhile, Conroy suggested that now that the Flames have a win in the bank, their thoughts have turned to sweeping the Sharks at home.

"Coming in, everybody was saying, you'd like to get a split," said Conroy, "but now we have the first one, this is an opportunity for us to go out and get the second one as well."