Flames Get Key Game 5 Victory

The road rules still apply for the Calgary Flames: When they’re on the road in the playoffs, they rule.

Jarome Iginla got things started with a short-handed goal, Miikka Kiprusoff got his fourth shutout of the playoffs and the Flames beat the San Jose Sharks, 3-0, Monday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference finals.

With its eighth road victory of the postseason, Calgary took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series. The Flames are closing in on the NHL record of 10 road playoff victories, set by the New Jersey Devils in 1995 and 2000.

“We realize how close we are,” Iginla said. “Home or away, it’s just one game and that’s our focus. It’s going to be a tough one, but we’re going to try to go home and win it.”

Playing with confidence and yet another 2-0 first-period lead at the sold-out Shark Tank, the Flames moved to the brink of their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals since 1989, when they won the franchise’s only championship. Calgary hopes to be Canada’s first representative in the finals since 1994.

Marcus Nilson also scored in the first period, while Iginla and Craig Conroy scored unassisted goals resulting from mental lapses by the Sharks, who lost all the poise they showed in their two victories at the Saddledome.

The visiting team has won every game in the series, and Calgary quickly rebounded from two straight home losses -- the Flames’ first consecutive defeats of the postseason.

Game 6 is Wednesday night in Calgary, where the Sharks will face elimination for the first time in the postseason. The Flames have been in plenty of tight spots already this spring: All three of their playoff series were tied after four games, and Calgary won all three Game 5s.

Evgeni Nabokov made 18 saves for the Sharks, who have lost four straight home playoff games.

The Sharks seemed confident after a dominant 4-2 victory in Game 4 -- but 24 hours later, San Jose fell behind early and never showed much life. The Sharks’ fans booed them off the ice after each of the final two periods.

Kiprusoff, pulled before the third period of Game 4, was barely tested by the sleepwalking Sharks, who had only a handful of scoring chances among their 19 shots.

Iginla’s NHL-leading ninth goal of the playoffs resulted from two mental errors typical of the mistakes made by San Jose at home in the last two weeks.

The Sharks were settling into their first power play when Alex Korolyuk’s slow pass along the blue line was intercepted by Iginla. He outskated two Sharks to the opposite net and slid the puck under Nabokov, who panicked and flopped on the ice while trying to stop the postseason’s leading scorer.

Nilson scored his second goal of the series on a broken play two minutes later.

San Jose’s fans came to the rink expecting to cheer a surging team -- but the Flames took most of the fight out of the Sharks, particularly after Team Teal rang two shots off the post behind Kiprusoff.