DENVER - Evgeni Nabokov could be on his way to becoming this season's Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Nabokov stopped 33 shots for his second shutout of the playoffs and Vincent Damphousse banked in a shot off Avalanche goaltender David Aebischer midway through the third period, helping San Jose beat Colorado 1-0 Monday night and take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"I think Nabokov was great," Damphousse said. "He stole the win for us. You need that to go far in the playoffs."
Giguere did that last season when he helped Anaheim reach the Stanley Cup final.
The Sharks will go for a sweep in Game 4 Wednesday in Denver.
Colorado held San Jose to 17 shots - five in the third period - but continued to struggle on offense. The Avalanche has three goals against San Jose after scoring 19 in five games against Dallas in the first round.
San Jose didn't have a shot in the third until Damphousse knocked in his own rebound off Aebischer's back with 11:01 left.
Aebischer blocked the first Damphousse attempt after Scott Hannan's shot bounced hard off the boards, but Damphousse used Aebischer as a backboard to score from behind the goal.
"I think that it was a little bit of a fluky goal," Damphousse said.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Richard Park and Ryan Malone each scored power-play goals for the United States, which earned its first point by tying Slovakia 3-3 in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Former NHL defenseman Richard Lintner tied it at 3 for Slovakia at 13:08 in the second.
Also, Canada coach Joel Quenneville was cleared to fly and was expected to return home to St. Louis today. He was hospitalized for exhaustion at the tournament and replaced by Mike Babcock of the Mighty Ducks.
