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BOX SCORE
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- The San Jose Sharks, seeking the first winning season in franchise history, opened this season with a rarity -- a victory.
Rookie defenseman Brad Stuart opened the scoring with his first
NHL goal and Marcus Ragnarsson, Gary Suter, Owen Nolan and Marco
Sturm all added goals as the Sharks defeated the Calgary Flames 5-3
Saturday night.
|  | | Calgary's Andrei Nazarov crashes into the San Jose net. |
The Sharks have opened the season with a win only once before, and they needed overtime to win that 1992-93 opener over Winnipeg in the second year of their existence.
"We've had some rough starts in San Jose since I've been
here," San Jose's Jeff Friesen said. "Maybe it wasn't the best-played game, but we got the ball rolling and we got the two
points.
"You always talk about this game being so important just to set
things in motion, but sometimes the first one is not the easiest
one. We were all pretty anxious, and sometimes you can be
overprepared and come out flat."
Cory Stillman, Rene Corbet and Valeri Bure scored for the
Flames.
"With the exception of the first 10 minutes of the second
period, there's nothing wrong with the way we played," Calgary
coach Brian Sutter said. "We had enough chances to win nine hockey
games."
Stuart, the third overall pick in the 1998 draft, opened the scoring when his shot deflected in off the stick of Calgary goalie Grant Fuhr. Stuart fed the puck to Friesen, who went behind the Flames' net and dumped it out to Stuart for the power-play goal.
Ragnarsson added an unassisted goal 52 seconds later to make it 2-0 with less than two minutes left in the first period.
Suter and Nolan added goals within a two-minute span early in the second period to make it 4-0. Fuhr was replaced by Fred Brathwaite after Nolan's goal, with 13:35 left in the period.
Calgary got its first goal of the season when Stillman, standing
in front of the net, deflected in a shot for a power-play goal with
7:03 left in the second period.
The Flames pulled within two goals early in the third period on
Corbet's goal. Sturm scored a few minutes later to make it 5-2, and
Calgary then got back within two goals again on Bure's power-play
goal with 12:25 left.
San Jose defenseman Bryan Marchment left the game with a sprained right knee early in the third period and did not return.
"I thought we had a good start. We got a lot of good scoring
opportunites," Sharks coach Darryl Sutter said. "We talked about
getting a win under our belts and going from there."
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Calgary Clubhouse
San Jose Clubhouse
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