DETROIT - When Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff made the final save of his shutout against the Red Wings, he held the puck above his head as the game-ending blue light turned on behind him.
"It was so loud. I didn't know if it was over right away," Kiprusoff said. "Then I looked up and saw the score and held my glove high. That was a great feeling."
The scoreboard read: Calgary 1, Red Wings 0.
Craig Conroy scored with 3:53 left in the second and Kiprusoff made 31 saves to lead the Flames over Detroit in Game 5 on Saturday. Calgary leads the series 3-2 and can end it at home Monday.
Kiprusoff's second shutout of the playoffs was the first against the Red Wings in Detroit since 1997, 52 postseason games ago. "He made the saves. I don't know if he saw every one of them," said Detroit coach Dave Lewis, who was without defenseman Chris Chelios for the third consecutive game with an undisclosed injury. "He made some big saves against a team with big-time goal scorers."
Calgary scored when Conroy passed from the right boards to Jarome Iginla in the corner. He then skated to the right circle, took the return pass and beat Curtis Joseph over his left shoulder.
About four minutes before the goal, Detroit's Mathieu Schneider fired a shot that ricocheted in front of Kiprusoff and hit teammate Steve Yzerman in the face as he stood to the left of the net.
Yzerman, who doesn't wear a face shield, went to a hospital for X-rays, and Detroit is expected to update his condition today.
AVS 2, SHARKS 1 (OT) Joe Sakic tied it with 10:10 left in regulation and won it 1:54 into overtime for visiting Colorado.
The Avalanche is halfway to the third comeback from a 3-0 deficit in league history after the 1942 Maple Leafs and 1975 Islanders. Game 6 is Tuesday in Colorado.
"It's about momentum, and we've got it now," said Sakic, who scored in overtime in Game 4. "Everybody thought we were done, the worst team on the planet. We've got too many quality guys to go out that way, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't get the next one."
After Vincent Damphousse scored during a two-man advantage late in the first, the Sharks had just three shots on goal during the next 35 minutes.
After several San Jose defensive miscues and Colorado near-misses, the Avalanche finally broke through when Teemu Selanne circled the net and found Sakic in front. In overtime, Sakic took a blind backhand pass from Peter Forsberg and beat Evgeni Nabokov low to the stick side.
"Some guys failed miserably in the last couple of games to get the job done," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "(Colorado) played with a desperation we hadn't seen from them in this series."
CANADIENS: Forward Joe Juneau announced his retirement. Juneau, educated as an engineer, has accepted a job at a company in his hometown of Pont-Rouge, Quebec. He had 156 goals and 416 assists in 828 games with Boston, Washington, Buffalo, Ottawa, Phoenix and Montreal.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Chris Drury scored off a rebound with 4:35 left as the United States beat Russia 3-2 in its qualifying-round opener in Ostrava, Czech Republic. Ryan Malone made it 2-2 9:54 into the third, firing a low slap shot from the right circle past Maxim Sokolov. The United States plays Sweden today and closes the qualifying round against winless Denmark on Tuesday.
AHL SUSPENSION: The AHL suspended Hamilton forward Alexander Perezhogin indefinitely, pending a league review, after his stick-swinging attack to the head of Cleveland defenseman Garrett Stafford on Friday. Stafford, out indefinitely, has a concussion and a cut on his face. Hamilton police are investigating the hit. The AHL didn't say when it will conduct its review.
