Sharks Advance to West Finals

The San Jose Sharks made sure the Colorado Avalanche didn’t have a chance to break their hearts again.

Evgeni Nabokov stopped 28 shots, and San Jose scored three goals in the second period to help the Sharks finish off the Avalanche, 3-1, on Tuesday night and reach the conference finals for the first time in their 13-year history.

San Jose had lost the last four times it had a chance to close out Colorado, including the final two games in 2002.

“I’ve been waiting 10 years to beat that team, and we finally did it,” San Jose’s Mike Rathje said.

San Jose lost to Colorado in the playoffs twice in the last five years and seemed headed toward more disappointment after the Avalanche won consecutive overtime games.

Not wanting the series to be extended to Game 7, the Sharks swarmed Colorado from the start and got goals from Vincent Damphousse, Marcel Goc and Jonathan Cheechoo in an 11-minute span of the second period to close out the series in six games.

“It’s a pretty fun roll,” said Shark Coach Ron Wilson, whose team will face the Calgary Flames in the Western Conference finals. “For a while there it got to be a roller coaster, but I’m really proud of our team.”

Damphousse broke through 1:34 into the second period with his fifth goal of the series, lifting a shot over David Aebischer’s right shoulder.

Goc made it 2-0 just over seven minutes later, and Cheechoo added to the lead three minutes later when he kept the puck on a two-on-one, deked Paul Kariya to the ice and beat Aebischer with a wrist shot a few seconds after San Jose killed off a penalty.

“Any time you beat Colorado, it’s huge,” Nabokov said. “They have so much over there. You’ve accomplished something when you beat them anywhere.”