Sharks sunk by fired-up Flames

Oakland Tribune, Jan 6, 2009 by David Pollak

CALGARY, Alberta -- The Calgary Flames were on a mission Tuesday night. And for the first 22 minutes, the Sharks could only stand around and watch.

San Jose did show signs of life as the game went on, but when the night ended, the Sharks were on the losing end of a 5-2 score.

"We want to redeem ourselves from our last game there," Calgary captain Jarome Iginla said hours before his team turned the tables on San Jose.

Iginla and his teammates were drawing inspiration from the 6-1 beating that San Jose inflicted at HP Pavilion on Nov. 13. Painful as that may have been, that loss turned Calgary's season around as the Flames have gone 15-4-3 since then and climbed to the top of the Northwest Division.

Tuesday's regulation loss was only the Sharks' fifth in 39 games and second in the past 23. It marked the first time that starting goalie Evgeni Nabokov had been yanked all season, and it came on a night when coach Todd McLellan decided to revamp all four of his forward lines.

Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, for example, started the game on separate lines for the first time all season, though they were back together by the second period.

Calgary was mindful of having been blown out in the first period of the game at HP Pavilion as the Sharks scored four unanswered goals.

They didn't quite match that at the Pengrowth Saddledome, but goals by Curtis Glencross, Daymond Langkow and Mark Giordano did stake the Flames to a 3-0 lead at the end of a first period in which they outshot San Jose 16-4.

Even more telling, the Sharks didn't get their first shot on net until the game's 17th minute -- and that came while short-handed.

Calgary made it 4-0 when Langkow scored his second of the game at 1:26 of the second period on the Flames' 18th shot. That ended Nabokov's night as McLellan brought backup Brian Boucher off the bench.

The Sharks were holding a 5-on-3 advantage when they made it 4-1 at 5:30 of the second period. Left wing Ryane Clowe was crashing the net when he put the rebound of defenseman Dan Boyle's shot past Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

San Jose was short-handed when it narrowed the gap to two goals a little less than four minutes later.

With center Marcel Goc in the penalty box for slashing Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf, Marleau stole the puck from the Flames' Adrian Aucoin, then slid it through the goal mouth to Mike Grier who poked it past Kiprusoff.

Whatever thoughts the Sharks might have been entertaining about making a comeback suffered a setback when Calgary right wing David Moss beat Boucher with a 43-foot wrist shot at 10:06 of the third period.

McLellan's new lines lasted one period.

He explained before the game that he wanted to shuffle things around with an eye toward this spring.

"It's an opportunity for us to see the Big Three apart," he said. "It's a little bit of forward planning. If we get on the road in the playoffs and things aren't going well with the Big Three together, do we have the ability to play apart?"

McLaren's new first line had Thornton between Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo. Marleau returned to his previous role as center between Clowe and Devin Setoguchi.

That dropped Joe Pavelski to the third line where he centered Grier and Tomas Plihal. The fourth line consisted of center Marcel Goc, Alexei Semenov and Brad Staubitz.

Notes: With the return of Douglas Murray to the lineup, rookie defenseman Derek Joslin was a healthy scratch. That disappointment may have been offset some by the fact Joslin was named as a starting defenseman for the Canadian team in the American Hockey League All- Star Game being held in Worcester on Jan. 26. ... Sharks center Tom Cavanagh was also a healthy scratch. Left wing Jody Shelley missed his second game with upper body soreness. ... Setoguchi could emerge as a candidate for the Lady Byng Trophy this season. Of all forwards with six or fewer penalty minutes, he is tied for most points (37) with Tampa Bay's Martin St. Louis.

Contact David Pollak at dpollak@mercurynews.com.FLAMES 5,

SHARKS 2-- NEXT GAME: Friday, at Oilers, 6 p.m.