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DENVER (Ticker) -- A big third period moved the San Jose Sharks to the brink of the third round of the playoffs for the first time in their history. Mike Ricci, Teemu Selanne and Owen Nolan scored third-period goals as the Sharks stunned the Colorado Avalanche, 5-3, to take a three games to two lead in their Western Conference semifinal series. San Jose never has reached the conference finals since entering the NHL for the 1991-92 season. A 4-1 loss in Game Four returned home-ice advantage to Colorado, but the Sharks wrested it right back. "You guys (in the media) expect Colorado to win. There's nobody in here that doubts that we're gonna win," Sharks center Vincent Damphousse said. "We did it two out of three games (here). We believe in each other and we believe that this is our year. It's far from over, but we won a big one today." Ricci forged a 3-3 tie against his former team when he put a rebound past Patrick Roy with 14:01 remaining. Just over three minutes later, Selanne fired a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that beat the goaltender to the stick side and found room inside the far goalpost. "In that Phoenix series, I didn't score any goals. I could have had three or four in that series, but sometimes the puck doesn't go in," Selanne said. "Sometimes you need a couple games to get the confidence back. But I've scored a lot of goals in this league and I know that confidence is a big factor." Nolan added an empty-net tally with three seconds to play, giving San Jose a chance to wrap up the series at home on Monday. "That was our goal," Ricci said. "I think we've got a lot of work ahead of us, and if we want to get this next win, it's gonna have to be our best effort, however long it's gonna take. These guys are great champions, they've been in this situation before. There's no panic over there." In fact, the Avalanche won Game Six of last year's Stanley Cup Finals on the road before coming home to wrap up the series. "We've won there before, but we can't play .500 hockey and move on now," Roy said. "It happened in New Jersey (last year) and hopefully it can happen in San Jose." Peter Forsberg had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who were 34-0-1 during the season when leading after two periods but fell to 2-2 in this series. "It wasn't the best performance," admitted Colorado captain Joe Sakic. "We had them down 3-2 in the third, we've got to have that win. We are making it tough on ourselves, but we have to do whatever we can to make sure we have a Game Seven." The Avalanche had their chances early, but Evgeni Nabokov made a stellar glove save on Milan Hejduk with 14 1/2 minutes to go in the first period and denied Sakic on a breakaway three minutes later. "I saw (Sakic) coming out and I tried to challenge him and come out as far as I can," said Nabokov, who made 18 saves. "I tried to read the play and not let him beat me upstairs." A defensive struggle turned into a shootout as the teams combined for four goals in a 3 1/2-minute stretch of the second period. San Jose's Marco Sturm got things started at 12:07, crashing the net, getting a pass from Damphousse and knocking it out of mid-air from close range on the Sharks' 16th shot. Forsberg answered 93 seconds later and the Avalanche grabbed the lead at 14:57 as Stephane Yelle's shot deflected twice before eluding Nabokov on a goal credited to Mike Keane. Niklas Sundstrom tied it again 41 seconds later with his first playoff goal. Roy made a sensational save when he reached behind himself with his blocker and swept a loose puck off the goal line. Sundstrom was celebrating a goal but quickly gathered the rebound and scored from a tight angle on the right side. "It was pretty good defensive hockey from both sides until we scored," Selanne said. "It seemed to open everything up and both teams scored so quickly. It was a really weird feeling." Sakic capped the five-goal second period with 1:55 left. Off a 3-on-2, defenseman Greg de Vries made a quick pass from the top of the slot and got the puck to the right circle, where Sakic one-timed a wrister inside the near post for his seventh postseason goal. But Colorado again was unable to protect a lead in the third period. In Game Three, San Jose scored three times over the final 16 1/2 minutes en route to a 6-4 win. "It doesn't take much," Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote said. "We know better. There was situations out there that we have to make better decisions. I can't tell you why it happened and I don't think we should get into it." Ricci's tying goal came after Roy stopped a shot that was deflected in front by Scott Thornton. Positioned at the left post, Ricci flicked the rebound under the crossbar for his fourth playoff goal. "I thought they had good breaks," Roy said. "From their first goal to the last one, they worked hard down low. The second and third ones, I thought, were very unlucky on our part." The Sharks improved to just 4-15 in afternoon playoff games. "Obviously, we had to win in the afternoon sometime," Ricci said. "We knew it and now maybe we won't have to listen to this question again 'cause our next game is at night." |
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