San Jose's Joe Pavelski, right, celebrates in front of Calgary defenceman Robyn Regehr after scoring in the second period of Game 5 on Thursday. The Sharks won 4-3.
The Calgary Flames heeded defenceman Robyn Regehr's call to play with greater effort and intensity Thursday night.

It still wasn't enough, though.
Jonathan Cheechoo scored a pair of goals, and captain Patrick Marleau added a goal and an assist to lift the San Jose Sharks to a 4-3 win over the Flames on home ice in Game 5 of their Western Conference quarter-final.

Nabokov made 33 saves for the Sharks, who lead the series 3-2 and can eliminate the Flames with a win in Game 6 Sunday in Calgary (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 8 pm ET). Calgary hasn't won a playoff series since beating San Jose in the Western Conference finals in 2004.

"It's our turn to come back in the series," coach Mike Keenan said. "We have to come back and tie it and at the same time face elimination."

While Regehr will be pleased with Thursday's effort, the result, which leaves Calgary on the brink of elimination, will rankle the Calgary defenceman.

The Flames drew the ire of Regehr following a disappointing showing in Game 4 on Tuesday when they registered a meagre 10 shots on goal.
Regehr criticized some teammates

Calgary was five minutes away from taking a 3-1 lead in the series, but the Sharks scored twice in the last five minutes of regulation, including the winner with 10 seconds left in Game 4, to tie the series at two wins apiece.

Regehr criticized some of his teammates in the wake of that demoralizing loss, and they clearly got the message.

A physical first period was dominated by the Flames — they outshot the Sharks 11-5 — although San Jose did enjoy a five-minute stretch when it carried the play.

Jarome Iginla nearly opening the scoring in the early minutes of the contest when he broke in one-on-one on Nabokov, who swiped the puck away just before it crossed the goal-line after the Flames captain slipped it through his pads.
'Thought we had more'

Calgary's Alex Tanguay rang a shot off the post just before the first intermission, capping off a first period that saw the Flames play with urgency and grit, much to the delight of Regehr.

"I was critical because if we played our best hockey and the series was tied 2-2, we could live with ourselves. But for the most part, we haven't done that and I thought we had more (to give) and that's the reason why I said that," Regehr told Hockey Night in Canada after the first period.

Both clubs played at a feverish pace to begin to the middle frame, exchanging early goal-scoring opportunities. Both Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and Nabokov made sensational saves on one-on-one opportunities before Iginla broke the deadlock with a power-play goal at 4:03 on a slapshot from the circle.

San Jose knotted the score with a power-play marker of its own midway through the period when Joe Pavelski's slapshot found the back of the net, and the Sharks took the lead at 18:07 as Marleau took a flip pass from Joe Thornton and snapped it past the glove of Kiprusoff.

The Sharks put the game away in the first half of the third thanks to Cheechoo.

Joe Pavelski stripped Flames defenceman Jim Vandermeer of the puck deep in his zone before Cheechoo banged in a rebound while standing on Kiprusoff's doorstop at 4:52. Cheechoo then added a second goal — and his third of the playoffs — just four minutes later on a two-on-1 break with Marleau to give the Sharks a three-goal lead.

Calgary cut into San Jose's advantage via a power-play marker from Daymond Langkow at 9:06, and winger David Moss scored with 1:17 left in regulation, but the Sharks withstood the Flames' late surge to hold on for the win.

"That was a lot better tonight than the last game," Iginla said. "Unfortunately we didn't get it done tonight, but we're going to do more of the same and go regroup and just get ready for Game 6. We really believe we can get Game 6 and we come back here for Game 7."
CBC