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CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Martin Gelinas has been golden in the playoffs for the Calgary Flames , who moved one step closer to winning the silver.

Gelinas scored his third series-clinching goal of the postseason midway through the second period as the Flames advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 15 years with a 3-1 triumph over the San Jose Sharks .

Signed as a free agent in July 2002, Gelinas scored 85 seconds into overtime of Game Seven of the Western Conference quarterfinals against the Vancouver Canucks , giving the Flames their first playoff series win since capturing the Stanley Cup in 1989.

Gelinas continued his magic against the Detroit Red Wings in the conference semifinals, tallying with 47 seconds to go in overtime of Game Six to eliminate the Presidents' Trophy winners.

In this one, the 33-year-old sealed the victory in less dramatic fashion. With the Flames holding a 1-0 lead, Gelinas took a feed from Craig Conroy at the blue line and beat goaltender Evgeni Nabokov at 13:02 of the second for his sixth goal of the postseason.

"Everybody's been chipping in. It just happened that I'm in the right place at the right time, and the pass by Connie was just unbelievable," Gelinas said. "He kind of gave me a little eye and said, 'Go for it,' and it was a great pass. And lucky it went in."

"He's the eliminator, he's eliminating teams," Conroy said. "You kind of felt a sense when he scored that one, it was the winner. It was good because of the guy that had it. ... Marty's had big goals throughout his career, but in Calgary, none bigger than these three."

The tally proved to be the difference as Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff allowed only Alyn McCauley 's goal with 3:46 left in the second. Kiprusoff made 18 saves against his former team, including seven in the third period.

Captain Jarome Iginla scored his playoff-leading 10th goal and defenseman Robyn Regehr was credited with an empty-netter for the Flames, who became the first Canadian team to reach the Finals since Vancouver in 1994.

"It's pretty awesome," Gelinas said. "You just feel that buzz in the city and everywhere you go. ... Not only we're representing Calgary, but Canada, and it's an opportunity that doesn't come very, very often. We just got to take the challenge and make the best out of it."

Calgary will visit the winner of the Eastern Conference finals series between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia for Game One on Tuesday.

With the road team winning each of the first five games of the conference finals, the Flames spent Tuesday night in a local hotel to try and buck the trend. The plan seemed to work as after tough guy Chris Simon rang a backhander off the right goalpost with 5:50 to go in the first, Iginla put Calgary ahead for good.

"It was (the players') decision after the game in San Jose for them all to go (to a hotel)," Flames coach Darryl Sutter said. "I'm not a psychologist. At this point, it's up to them, what they want, how they want to handle it."

While Curtis Brown served a double-minor for high-sticking, Iginla used Scott Hannan as a screen and wristed a shot between the legs of the defenseman and Nabokov from the left faceoff circle with 68 seconds left for his third goal in as many games and fourth of the series.

"It was before the game we realized that the team that scored the first goal had won every game in the series," Iginla said. "We prepared in our (locker) room that we wanted to push for that first goal. ... So it was great to see it go in and it was a boost for our club to get off ahead."

Brown had a chance at redemption in the second, but Kiprusoff stopped his shorthanded chance from in front to maintain Calgary's 1-0 edge.

After a faceoff in the neutral zone, Conroy gained control of the puck and dished to Gelinas, who fired a wrister from the left circle past Nabokov for a two-goal cushion.

"There's some guys on their team they rely on, obviously Iginla and Kiprusoff, but they got a lot of support from other guys," Sharks center Vincent Damphousse said. "You can't win a series and go as far as you did just relying on those two guys."

McCauley halved San Jose's deficit 3:12 later, but the Flames tightened up their defense in the third period and did not allow a quality chance.

"We didn't have as many chances," Nabokov acknowledged. "They were coming pretty hard. ... I thought we played all right but unfortunately, it's not enough in Game Six to play all right."

With Nabokov pulled for an extra attacker and the Sharks making a last-ditch effort in the final seconds, Alex Korolyuk failed to connect on a pass from behind the goal line and fired the puck the length of the ice into his own net. Regehr was the last Flame to touch the puck and was credited with his second goal of the playoffs.