Patrick Marleau scores winner as San Jose Sharks eliminate Detroit Red Wings | NHL playoffs

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

It's only fitting 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 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.

Three straight second-round losses were followed by a first-round defeat to Anaheim last season, raising questions about whether the core of Thornton, Marleau and Nabokov could lead the Sharks to the Stanley Cup.

San Jose is now halfway to that elusive title. The Sharks will play either Chicago or Vancouver in the conference finals. Marleau and Nabokov are the only players remaining from San Jose's only previous trip to the conference finals when the Sharks lost 4-2 to Calgary.

"It's definitely nice to get back there and be one step closer to winning the cup," said Marleau, a former Seattle Thunderbird.

Nabokov survived a blitz late in the second period to keep it tied at 1. Marleau then came through with his second game-winning goal of this series when Thornton found him all alone in the slot and he beat Jimmy Howard.

The goal set off a raucous celebration at the Shark Tank. Marleau also scored in overtime to win Game 3, also off a feed from Thornton.

For the Red Wings, a season that got off to a slow start because of injuries but seemed to be peaking at the right time has come to an early end.

"They were better than us," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "The games were tight but they found a way to continually win. That's what good teams do."

Detroit got its goal early in the second when Brian Rafalski's point shot sneaked through to make it 1-0. Johan Franzen assisted, tying Gordie Howe's franchise record set in 1964 by recording a point in 12 straight playoff games.

Nabokov didn't allow anything else all game, finishing with 33 saves.

Penguins up 3-2

PITTSBURGH — 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 the Pittsburgh Penguins moved one victory from eliminating the Canadiens by winning 2-1 on Saturday night.

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 past 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.

Trailing 2-0, Montreal pulled goalie Jaroslav Halak to create a 6-on-4 advantage after Pascal Dupuis went off for slashing with 2:26 remaining and Mike Cammalleri scored his ninth goal with 30 seconds to play. But it was much too late for the Canadiens, who couldn't solve Fleury much like the Penguins have struggled against Halak at times during a tightly played series.