NHL PLAYOFFS Road-dominating Flames capture 3-2 series edge

Calgary blanked San Jose to win its eighth road game of the postseason.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- According to the schedule, the Calgary Flames are headed home with a chance to close out the Western Conference finals.
In reality, the Flames have made themselves at home everywhere except Calgary in the playoffs -- and that's working out just fine for the NHL's most surprising road warriors.
Jarome Iginla got things started with a short-handed goal and Miikka Kiprusoff got his fourth shutout of the playoffs, as the Flames beat the San Jose Sharks 3-0 Monday night in Game 5 to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-7 series.
With their eighth road victory of the postseason, the Flames are closing in on the NHL record of 10 road playoff wins, set by the New Jersey Devils in 1995 and 2000.
Dominance
What's more, they're doing it in style -- dominating the Sharks for the second straight time in San Jose while rebounding from consecutive losses in Calgary.
"It's definitely different, what we're doing this year," said Iginla, who leads the NHL with 16 postseason points. "I can't put my finger on why it's working out this way. I don't think anybody can. It's kind of fun, though."
Game 6 is Wednesday night in Calgary, where the Sharks will face elimination for the first time in the postseason.
The Flames have been in plenty of tight spots already this spring: All three of their playoff series were tied after four games, and Calgary won all three Game 5s.
The visiting team has won every game in the series.
Playing with confidence and a 2-0 first-period lead at the sold-out Shark Tank, the sixth-seeded Flames moved to the brink of their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals since 1989, when they won the franchise's only championship. Calgary hopes to be Canada's first representative in the finals since 1994.
Goal scorers
Marcus Nilson also scored in the first period, while Iginla and Craig Conroy scored unassisted goals resulting from mental lapses by the Sharks, who lost all the poise they showed in their two victories at the Saddledome.
"Where that performance came from, I really have no idea," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "It wasn't one or two guys. It was almost the whole team struggling. You have to give Calgary some credit, but we really did a pretty good job of shooting ourselves in the foot with some very elementary mistakes."
Evgeni Nabokov made 18 saves for the Sharks, who have lost four straight home playoff games. The Sharks seemed confident following a dominant 4-2 victory in Game 4 -- but 24 hours later, San Jose fell behind early and never showed much life. The Sharks' fans booed them off the ice after each of the final two periods.
"We didn't play hard, and I can't explain that," center Vincent Damphousse said. "We've been battling the odds ever since the beginning of the series, and we'll try to do it again. There's a lot of things we can do better. We just have to keep winning road games. That seems to be the trend."