Flames   Team Page   Schedule   Stats

Sharks   Team Page   Schedule   Stats

SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- The latest overtime hero for the Calgary Flames was an unlikely one.

Defenseman Steve Montador scored his first career playoff goal 18:43 into the extra period as the Flames took the opener of the Western Conference finals with a 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks .

Calgary had gotten just one goal from a defenseman in its first 13 playoff games. And Montador scored just once in 26 games during the regular season.

But the 24-year-old trailed the play, got a pass from Jarome Iginla and cruised down the slot before wristing a shot from the inner edge of the right faceoff circle past the stick of goaltender Evgeni Nabokov and inside the far goalpost.

"I think they were making a change," Montador said. "The crowd was (loud) and I wanted to make sure Jarome could hear me. He's usually a shooter, and a very good one at that. He recognized that there was an open man, made an excellent pass to get it to me."

"Obviously, our line made a bad change on that last goal," Sharks center Mike Ricci said.

Craig Conroy tallied twice for the sixth-seeded Flames, who have started each of their last two series with overtime road wins. Four of their nine playoff victories have come in overtime.

"You never know who it is going to be, but it has been part of our fun ride this year - all different guys at different times scoring big goals and making plays," Iginla said. "Tonight is another example of that."

San Jose, which battled back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, peppered former Shark Miikka Kiprusoff with a team playoff-record 52 shots but saw home-ice advantage shift to Calgary, which improved to 6-2 on the road.

"We got over 50 shots, did some really good things. But we made some mistakes turning the puck over," San Jose center Vincent Damphousse said. "In our zone, we've got to toughen it up a little bit and we'll be fine. I think we did a lot of good things tonight."

Game Two is Tuesday at San Jose.

The Flames had gone 11 games without scoring in the first period but broke on top 9:26 into the contest on Krzysztof Oliwa 's second playoff goal. Calgary killed a two-minute two-man advantage, then doubled its lead in the final minute of the period as Conroy converted a 2-on-1.

"That was the game for us," Conroy said of the penalty-kill. "It gave us the confidence."

Ricci got the Sharks on the board 83 seconds into the second period, outbattling defenseman Jordan Leopold in front and backhanding a ebound while falling to the ice.

San Jose tied it with 58 seconds to go in the second as Todd Harvey deflected Wayne Primeau 's shot past Kiprusoff for his first postseason goal since the 2000 conference semifinals.

Conroy broke the deadlock midway through the third when he beat a screened Nabokov with a slap shot from the point, but Alexander Korolyuk forced overtime with 3:21 remaining when his shot from the outer edge of the right circle fluttered by Kiprusoff's glove.