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There are probably times when San Jose Sharks general manager Doug Wilson sits back and breathes a sigh of relief that Marc-Edouard Vlasic has become a decent NHL defenceman.

Vlasic, in his second season with San Jose, was the return for Wilson when he dealt then backup goalie Miikka Kiprusoff to Calgary for a second-round draft pick on Nov. 16, 2003.

Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff and centre Matthew Lombardi (18) save a goal by San Jose's Joe Pavelski on Wednesday.
(Paul Sakuma/Associated Press)

"We knew he'd have a chance to be a great goalie and that's exactly what he turned out to be when he got a chance to play every day," Wilson said after the 2003-04 campaign.

That summer, Kiprusoff led the Flames to the 2004 Stanley Cup finals, losing in Game 7 to Tampa Bay.

Now, the Finnish standout is attempting to put a sad ending on another successful Sharks season.

Kiprusoff will be in the net in San Jose when Calgary tries to grab a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarter-final on Thursday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 10 p.m. ET).

He was the difference in Wednesday's series opener, outperforming former netminder partner Evgeni Nabokov with a 37-save performance in a 3-2 Flames win, their fourth in a row over the Sharks in the post-season.

Kiprusoff, who won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender in 2006, seems to save his better efforts for visits to San Jose.

In his last regular-season start against the Sharks, Kiprusoff backstopped his team to a 3-2 overtime victory with 40 saves.

A month earlier, the Flames' puckstopper outbattled Nabokov in another OT thriller, turning aside 34 shots and nearly as many scoring chances.

Playing with fire?

While Kiprusoff meets the challenge time and again, Hockey Night in Canada analyst Kelly Hrudey wonders if Calgary is playing with fire.

"Calgary clearly had a great game from Kiprusoff," Hrudey said after Wednesday's game. "[But] if this continues it's going to be a tough series for Calgary in the sense that you need a better plan than, 'Go steal it for us, goalie.'

"I have a feeling that San Jose still feels really good about themselves."

While the Sharks dropped their fourth straight one-goal contest to Calgary, they outshot the Flames 39-23 and put a scare into the visitors with a minute remaining in regulation and Nabokov pulled for an extra attacker.

After Ryane Clowe scored his second goal of the night to cut the Calgary lead to 3-2 with 57 seconds left on the clock, Kiprusoff denied Patrick Marleau and Clowe in the final 30 seconds.

"He's a goalie that never gives up on a play, never gives up on the puck," said Hrudey. "I've always said that's one of his greatest qualities. This is a guy, although he's very athletic and [very good] technique-wise, at some point [is] willing to abandon his system and his style … to just stop [the puck]."

Despite the barrage of shots, Flames captain Jarome Iginla doesn't believe his team stole the victory.

"There's no doubt Kipper played amazing," he told Steve Armitage of HNIC. "He plays so well all year, but near the end [of the regular season] and playoffs every year, he brings it up another level.

"[But] we played a great third period and we didn't give them a lot [of scoring chances]."

Flames subdue Thornton

Calgary parlayed an aggressive forechecking game to a 2-0 lead in the first five minutes on goals from Dion Phaneuf and Stephane Yelle, who added the winner at 16:21 of the third period.

From there, the Flames were effective in keeping San Jose on the perimeter, while Phaneuf did a solid job containing Sharks leading scorer Joe Thornton.

"You want to win every game, so allow us five minutes to be disappointed, and just get ready for [Thursday]," said Thornton, who has two assists in five games versus Calgary this season.

Game 3 is scheduled for Sunday in Calgary (CBC, 10 p.m. ET).

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