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The improbable season
ends
Sharks run out of magic in Game
6
5/19/04 - by Mike Lee
The
improbable season is over for the San Jose Sharks. It ended on the cold Alberta
prairie on Wednesday night as the Sharks ran out of the magic that has carried
them from preseason cellar dweller to Stanley Cup contender in 8 short, but
glorious months. Fighters to the end, the Sharks came up a goal short, even
though the scoreboard read 3-1 in favor of the Calgary Flames. San Jose fought
back from a 2-0 deficit and came within a bounce of tying the game late, but
the breaks have gone Calgary's way in this Western Conference Finals series.
The last on an Alexander Korolyuk pass that missed its intended target and
floated down the ice and into San Jose's goal a fraction of a second before the
final buzzer sounded.
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
| CGY |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
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| 1st period - CGY,
J. IGINLA (10) (C. CONROY, J. LEOPOLD), 18:52 |
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| 2nd period - CGY,
M. GELINAS (6) (C. CONROY), 13:02 S.J, A. MCCAULEY (2) (N. EKMAN, M. RATHJE),
16:14 |
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| 3rd period - CGY,
R. REGEHR (2) , 19:59 |
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| 1st period - S.J,
C. BROWN, 18:27 - Hi stick S.J, C. BROWN, 18:27 - Hi stick |
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| 2nd period - CGY,
O. SAPRYKIN, 04:40 - Interference - Obstruction S.J, J. MARSHALL, 07:03 -
Holding S.J, K. MCLAREN, 09:42 - Tripping CGY, C. CLARK, 17:16 - Interference
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| 3rd period - CGY,
R. REGEHR, 07:15 - Hooking |
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Shots |
Saves |
| SJ - Nabokov |
28 |
26 |
| CGY - Kiprusoff |
19 |
18 |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
T |
| SJ |
6 |
6 |
7 |
19 |
| CGY |
11 |
13 |
5 |
29 |
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The Sharks can spend plenty of time pondering what
might have been, but a series win just wasn't in the cards. From Calgary's
first gal, a power play tally, to Korolyuk's own goal, the stars just weren't
aligned in San Jose's favor.
The Flames converted when given the
opportunity, and held off a relentless Sharks surge in the closing minutes to
earn their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1989. San Jose provided
those opportunities too frequently in this series. Curtis Brown gift wrapped
the Flames first goal by taking an ill advised high sticking penalty that
earned him a four-minute stay in the penalty box.
As if Jarome
Iginla's conversion on the ensuing power play wasn't bad enough, the Flames
captain did it exactly two minutes into the penalty, which allowed the Flames
to enjoy the second half of Brown's punishment.
Brown had a golden
opportunity to atone for his mistake midway through the 2nd period, when he
grabbed a loose puck in front of the Flames goal after Marcel Goc worked
valiantly to get the puck out of the corner while the Sharks were killing a
Jason Marshall penalty. Brown was one-on-one with Flames goaltender Miikka
Kiprusoff, but rather than picking a corner, he fired it into the center of
Kiprusoff's chest.
Calgary pushed their lead to 2-0 midway through the
2nd when the Sharks defense committd a major blunder by not squaring up against
the Flames on a faceoff at center ice. Craig Conroy chipped the puck past Wayne
Primeau then slid a lead pass to Martin Gelinas who sprinted past Mike Rathje
on the right wing. Gelinas grabbed the puck just inside the Sharks blueline and
snapped a shot past Evgeni Nabokov.
Alyn McCauley cut the Flames lead
to 2-1 with 3:46 remaining in the period on a counter attack that crossed up
Kiprusoff. Nils Ekman setup McCauley by drawing two defenders toward him on the
left wing, before sliding a pass to McCauley for the one-timer.
San
Jose would miss on several chances in the final period, including a chance that
Todd Harvey missed after he rushed a backhand shot just outside the left post.
Sharks head coach Ron Wilson pulled Nabokov with a minute to play, but
the Sharks couldn't crack the Flames defense. Several shots were blocked by
Calgary defenders, keeping them from even challenging Kiprusoff.
With
15 seconds remaining, the Sharks forced a faceoff in the Flames zone and pushed
the puck up against the Flames end boards, but Korolyuk tried feathering a pass
that he got too much on. The puck hopped over Jonathan Cheechoo's stick and
skidded down the ice, capping the season.
Quotables
"You
never know when this opportunity is going to come again in your life. You'd
like to think it's going to happen every year ... but we know that's not the
case. You have to grab it when it comes." - Jarome Iginla
"Overtime
goals are too hard on my heart. It was good to get it out of the way early. ...
When we started the season, we knew we had a gritty team that worked hard, and
our goal was to make the playoffs. To say that we were going to get the Stanley
Cup, that's hard to believe." - Martin Gelinas
"We just didn't have good
luck this time. We've got a lot of breaks in the playoffs, but I guess our luck
just ran out." - Vincent Damphousse
"You never pictured this in your
wildest dreams. Everything about this season has just been too good to be
true." - Craig Conroy
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