AP News
(2010-05-09 21:17:08)
The San Jose Sharks are savoring their return to the National Hockey League' Western Conference finals, after five seasons of play-off disappointment.
"It feels good," Joe Thornton said after the Sharks beat Detroit 2-1 to eliminate the Detroit Red Wings four games to one on Saturday night.
The Sharks had had a chance to sweep, but were trounced in Detroit in the previous game.
"After kind of embarrassing ourselves with the 7-1 loss in Detroit we just wanted to bounce back. I thought we did a great job," Thornton said.
San Jose have notched the second-best regular-season record in the NHL the past five seasons, but hadn't made it past the second round in that stretch until this season.
Three straight second-round losses were followed by a first-round defeat to Anaheim last season.
Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Evgeni Nabokov bore the brunt of criticism for those failures - and played a key role in this series' success.
In game five, Thornton scored San Jose's opening goal, and set up Marleau for the tiebreaking goal 6:59 into the third period.
"That's great to see because we had some individuals that, heading into the playoffs, had to answer some questions," coach Todd McLellan said. "I think to this point they've done that."
Goaltender Nabokov recovered from the beating he took in game four, and the Sharks now await the winner of the Western Conference series between Chicago or Vancouver.
"It's definitely nice to get back there and be one step closer to winning the cup," Marleau said.
Copyright 2010 AFP American Edition
