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Nolan helps Flames rally past Sharks

Apr 14, 2008 - 6:16 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Owen Nolan continues to haunt his former team.

Nolan snapped a tie with 3:45 remaining in the third period as the seventh-seeded Calgary Flames rallied from an early three-goal deficit to defeat the second-seeded San Jose Sharks, 4-3, in Game Three of their Western Conference quarterfinal series on Sunday.

Captain Jarome Iginla and Daymond Langkow had power-play goals and defenseman Dion Phaneuf also tallied for Calgary, which leads the best-of-seven series two-games-to-one.

"We're too stubborn in here," Nolan said of the comeback. "We've got a lot of pride to sit back after the quick start that they had. We regrouped and got back to playing the way we wanted to play and just kept pressing the puck."

"For tonight, we'll definitely enjoy this," Iginla said. "It was a character win."

After starting goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff surrendered three goals on five shots, Curtis Joseph relieved the Finnish netminder and stopped all 22 shots he faced.

"It felt great coming back from 3-0," said Joseph, whose last playoff appearance was with the Detroit Red Wings, playing against the Flames on May 3, 2004. "It doesn't happen too many times in your career, especially in a playoff game. It was nice to see the boys really work hard. We certainly stepped up our game from the opening 10 minutes."

"Curtis played exceptionally well," Calgary coach Mike Keenan said. "He was very composed, he looked like a veteran and steadied the game for us."

Ryane Clowe scored and captain Patrick Marleau and defenseman Douglas Murray tallied 14 seconds apart for San Jose.

"We had a 3-0 lead and came out doing exactly what we wanted to do," Clowe said. "I guess we kind of got complacent a little bit. You don't do that in the playoffs. Those power plays are key and you have to have that killer instinct. We have to put this one in the past."

"If we kept the foot on the gas and kept pushing the pace, it may be a different outcome," Marleau said. "We sat back and they came back at us."

A former Sharks captain, Nolan snapped a 3-3 deadlock late in the third period after accepting a feed from Alex Tanguay in the left faceoff circle and blasting a shot past All-Star Evgeni Nabokov for the game-winning goal.

Nolan also recorded a hat trick to lead the Flames to a 5-4 victory over the Sharks on January 30.

After the Sharks scored three times in just over 3 1/2 minutes of play, the Flames made a steady comeback.

Iglina put the Flames on the scoreboard with 6:38 remaining in the opening session, deflecting a shot from Phaneuf past Nabokov for his first goal of the postseason.

Langkow halved the deficit midway through the second period and Phaneuf leveled the contest 78 seconds into the third period.