Sharks cut Wings' flight short

Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Evgeni Nabokov shouldered the brunt of the criticism for San Jose's past postseason failures.

It's only fitting that those three are the biggest reason why the Sharks are headed back to the Western Conference finals for the first time in six years.

Thornton set up Marleau for the tiebreaking goal 6:59 into the third period and Nabokov bounced back from a Game 4 shellacking to help the host Sharks eliminate the two-time defending Western Conference champion Detroit Red Wings with a 2-1 victory Saturday night in Game 5 of their second-round series.

"It feels good," said Thornton, who scored the first goal for San Jose. "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."

Postseason disappointments have been commonplace in recent years in San Jose. The Sharks have had the second-best record in the NHL the past five seasons, but hadn't made it past the second round in that span until now.

"It's definitely nice to be one step closer to winning the cup," Marleau said.

Penguins 2, Canadiens 1: Marc-Andre Fleury made 32 saves, Kris Letang scored on a power play after accidentally setting up Montreal's decisive goal in the previous game and host Pittsburgh moved within a victory of eliminating the Canadiens.

Sergei Gonchar also scored as the reigning Stanley Cup champions seized a 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals, with Game 6 set for Montreal on Monday night. The Canadiens, held to four goals in the last three games, must win to force a Game 7 on Wednesday in Pittsburgh.

Sidney Crosby remained without a goal in the series and Evgeni Malkin also didn't find the net - he did set up Letang's pivotal goal late in the first period - but the Penguins had enough offense without their stars to support Fleury's best game of the playoffs.