San Jose hangs on and defeats Calgary

Patrick Marleau and Jonathan Cheechoo moved the San Jose Sharks within a victory of a fourth consecutive trip to the second round of the playoffs with a 4-3 victory over the Calgary Flames on Thursday night at San Jose.

Marleau scored the tiebreaking goal late in the second period and Cheechoo had two goals in the third.

Joe Pavelski also scored and Evgeni Nabokov made 33 saves for the Sharks, who lead the series, 3-2.

San Jose was outplayed early, falling behind, 1-0, when Jarome Iginla scored on a two-man advantage early in the second period.

Nabokov made sure the deficit wasn’t worse, turning aside 26 shots in the first two periods. That gave the Sharks’ skaters time to find their stride and they outplayed the Flames the rest of the game.

Marleau drew a hooking penalty against Stephane Yelle that set up Pavelski’s tying power-play goal midway through the second period against Miikka Kiprusoff.

Philadelphia 4, Washington 3 (2OT)-- Mike Knuble poked in his second goal of the series 6:40 into the second overtime to give the Flyers the victory at Philadelphia.

The Capitals have lost three in a row in the series and it could be the end for them if leading scorer Alex Ovechkin can’t start finding the back of the net. Ovechkin, who scored 65 goals during the regular season, had only one assist in Game 4.

Colorado 3, Minnesota 2 -- Wojtek Wolski and Paul Stastny scored 79 seconds apart and the Avalanche, who were outshot, 32-14, over the first two periods, won at St. Paul, Minn.

Boston 5, Montreal 1 -- Glen Metropolit scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Bruins avoided elimination at Montreal.