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 Now the Sharks are headed to Canada with an even first-round series and a chance to show why they were the NHL's best road team in the regular season.
Nabokov made 21 saves in his sixth career postseason shutout, and rookie Torrey Mitchell scored in the waning seconds of nearly 10 power-play minutes for the Sharks in the second period of their 2-0 victory Thursday night.
Joe Pavelski also scored for the second-seeded Sharks, who outshot the penalty-prone Flames by a huge margin
-- 43-21 this time -- for the second time in 24 hours.
San Jose got 27 of those shots -- the most in one period of a playoff game since 1997
-- in the second period, but Kiprusoff nearly kept the Flames in a one-goal game despite close to 10 minutes of short-handed play.
But Mitchell finally scored on a rebound, and the Sharks survived the third period before looking ahead to another trip north to the same rink where they lost the 2004 Western Conference finals.
"We knew we couldn't lose going to Calgary," said Nabokov, who led the NHL with 46 regular-season victories. "They were playing great hockey, and we just kept coming at them. It's a win, that's the most important thing. A shutout is icing on the cake. There's a lot of work ahead of us, a lot of fights ahead of us."
Game 3 is in Calgary on Sunday.
In the other NHL playoff games Thursday night, it was Detroit 3, Nashville 1; Montreal 4, Boston 1; and Dallas 4, Anaheim 0.
The biggest moment of Game 2 looked more like a snapshot from a San Jose Sharks practice in 2002. After Kiprusoff made a save on one end, Owen Nolan had a shot at an open net on the other with 4:51 to play
-- but Nabokov blindly reached out to make a stunning glove save, leaving Nolan chewing his mouthpiece with a dazed expression.
All three were teammates in teal six years ago, when Nolan was the Sharks' captain and the goalies formed one of the most gifted tandems in recent NHL history.
"Nabby is unbelievable," Mitchell said. "He shouldn't have to make saves like that, but when he does, we're not surprised."
Kiprusoff was nearly as good, stopping 41 shots as the seventh-seeded Flames labored on the penalty-kill for 9:52 in the second period, in which San Jose outshot Calgary 27-3.
"That was some second period," Kiprusoff said. "It was quite a scene in front of the net, with quite a few 5-on-3s. Our killers did a pretty good job of keeping us in the game, but it wasn't enough."
When these former teammates met four years ago, Kiprusoff was the Flames' best player in their six-game victory. Kiprusoff won the Vezina Trophy in 2006, and Nabokov is a favorite this summer after the best season in franchise history.
"I'm sure Warren Strelow is upstairs with a big smile on his face," coach Ron Wilson said of the Sharks' longtime goaltending coach, who died last year after tutoring a long string of NHL netminders.
San Jose again used its big advantages in speed and skill to keep the Flames on the defensive
-- or force them to commit penalties, including six consecutive calls in the second period.
"I was very upset about the officiating," Calgary coach Mike Keenan said. "I'll share those thoughts with the league and with the supervisor of the officials. I can't comment on how it affected my players. We had a good first period, and then there was a total imbalance in the second."
San Jose then was hit with three straight penalties in about 10 minutes to open the third, but Nabokov and his penalty-killers stopped everything. Calgary took two more penalties in the final minutes to make Nabokov's shutout a bit easier.
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In addition to Nabokov's jaw-dropping stop on Nolan, he made two impressive saves in the first period, stopping Flames captain Jarome Iginla on a 2-on-1 break to keep Calgary off the board until Pavelski's goal on a long rebound early in the second period.
Red Wings 3, Predators 1
Henrik Zetterberg broke a tie at 6:54 of the third period and added an empty-net goal, lifting host Detroit in Game 1 of the first-round series.
Dominik Hasek, playing in his 116th playoff game, made 19 saves for the top-seeded Wings and Dan Ellis stopped 37 shots for the Predators.
Detroit's Johan Franzen scored in the first period and Nashville's Jordin Tootoo tied it late in the second.
Game 2 in the best-of-seven series is Saturday in Detroit.
Canadiens 4, Bruins 1
Sergei and Andrei Kostitsyn scored goals 1:28 apart in the opening minutes of their playoff debuts, and host Montreal remained perfect against Boston this season.
Carey Price also made his playoff debut, stopping 17 shots for Montreal, which finished first overall in the Eastern Conference with 104 points, in large part thanks to sweeping eight games against the Bruins.
Bryan Smolinski and Tom Kostopoulos also scored for the Canadiens.
Bruins goalie Tim Thomas stopped 28 shots in his first playoff game and Shawn Hnidy scored for Boston in the first period.
Montreal will host Game 2 of the best-of-seven series Saturday night.
Stars 4, Ducks 0
Marty Turco earned his fourth career postseason shutout and visiting Dallas scored four power-play goals to take Game 1 against the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Turco made 23 saves, Steve Ott and Loui Eriksson had first-period power-play goals, and Jere Lehtinen and Brendan Morrow added power-play scores in the second for the Stars.
Morrow also had two assists, as did Mike Ribeiro.
Game 2 is Saturday night in Anaheim.
[Associated Press; By GREG BEACHAM]
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
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