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Smith, Michalek lifts Sharks over Flames

Dec 24, 2006 - 7:19 AM SAN JOSE, California (Ticker) -- Mark Smith and Milan Michalek did their parts to help the San Jose Sharks rebound from a disappointing home loss.

Smith had a goal and an assist while Michalek scored the game-winning goal as the Sharks downed the Calgary Flames, 4-1.

Marcel Goc and Scott Hannan also scored for the Sharks, who rebounded from a 3-0 home shutout loss to the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

"We responded well to our last game," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "Focus and attention to detail was there. You have to play really hard when you are playing Calgary, because they fight for every inch on the ice.

"I'm hopeful we can play like this every night. It's not that hard. There's going to be nights when you are tired, when the schedule takes advantage of you, but we really shouldn't use that as an excuse. It has not happened very often."

"We didn't get it done," Calgary right wing Jarome Iginla said. "The Sharks are good. They were good and we didn't put enough pressure on them. We didn't make it hard enough on them. We weren't able to get a power play all night, so that means, as forwards, as a group, we are not putting enough pressure on them and making it hard enough."

Michalek scored the game-winner at 10:14 of the second period on the power play when he banged in a rebound of Matt Carle's shot past Miikka Kiprusoff to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead.

"I started it, I had the puck in the corner, and I saw Cheech (Jonathan Cheechoo) in the front of the net," Michalek said. "I tried to pass it there, and it went all the way across to Matty Carle and he shot it. I had an open net, so it was easy for me."

The Sharks went 1-for-5 on the power play while the Flames were not awarded a power-play opportunity.

"If you're moving your feet, you are not going to take any penalties," Wilson said. "If you don't get caught on the wrong side of things, by being mentally ready to play, you're not going to take many penalties."

Matthew Lombardi scored the lone goal for Calgary, which finished its six-game road trip at 2-3 with a postponement.

"It was definitely a new experience for a few of us, never having been snowed in before," Iginla said of the Flames, whose game against the Colorado Avalanche in Denver on Thursday was postponed due to a strong blizzard. "Missing games and all that but, on the other side, we were able to get some rest and we were excited about this game and the chance to, from our point of view, get to the top of our division and go home on a winning note."