Flames 3, Sharks 2

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Robyn Regehr's soft shot fooled goalie Evgeni Nabokov and stunned the slumping San Jose Sharks.

Regehr scored the go-ahead goal on a harmless-looking wrister in the third period, and the Calgary Flames sent San Jose to its seventh straight loss with a 3-2 victory Wednesday night.

With the score tied 1-all midway through the third period, Shean Donovan worked the puck back to Regehr at the blue line and the defenseman's low shot was muffed by Nabokov, who stuck out his glove and missed it completely.

"It was coming right for my glove and unfortunately it just went right past it," Nabokov said. "It's a bad goal and that's the reason we lost."

Roman Hamrlik and Tony Amonte also scored for Calgary, which has won 10 of 11. The Flames tied Vancouver for the top spot in the Northwest Division with 30 points.

"San Jose's defensemen and forwards do a great job of coming out and blocking shots, so we were just trying to get shots past those guys and I was lucky enough to get one through," Regehr said.

The Sharks got goals from Tom Preissing and Grant Stevenson, who made his NHL debut. Stevenson is the grandson of Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall.

It was redemption for Regehr, whose holding penalty in the opening minute of the third period led to a power-play goal by Stevenson that tied the score at 1.

Stevenson was recalled earlier in the day from Cleveland of the AHL, where he led the team in goals (eight) and points (16). Hall was at the game to watch his grandson's debut.

"It's pretty cool," said the 24-year-old Stevenson, a native of Spruce Grove, Alberta. "Getting to be in the starting lineup to start the game, then to be able to get a goal with all my family here, that felt pretty good."

Amonte gave the Flames some insurance at 16:27 of the third period, jamming in a rebound to make it 3-1 after Nabokov stopped Darren McCarty's slap shot.

The extra goal turned out to be pivotal when Preissing scored with seven seconds remaining after Nabokov was pulled, cutting it to 3-2.

"It was a tough game right from the start, those guys were hungry and played hard," Amonte said. "It was probably one of our tougher games all season, a game you had to grind it out, you knew there wasn't going to be a lot of scoring, and we got the breaks in the end."

Three of San Jose's seven consecutive losses have come in shootouts.

After getting the night off Monday in Calgary's 3-2 win at Colorado, Miikka Kiprusoff returned to the net and made 20 saves.

Kiprusoff's best stop came with the score tied 1-all in the third. With the Sharks breaking in on a 2-on-1, Kiprusoff slid across in an acrobatic move to get his blocker on a shot by Mark Smith after he was set up with what appeared to be an open net on Milan Michalek's pass.

"I just tried to get it away as quick as I could and try to beat him before he came across," Smith said. "If I bury that, it's a whole different game. Then they came down and score after that, it's a heartbreaker."

Nabokov, who finished with 22 stops, is winless in five games since returning from a shoulder injury.

With San Jose down 1-0, Patrick Marleau's shot from the blue line hit a crowd in front of the Flames' net and the puck caromed to out to Stevenson, who quickly fired it past Kiprusoff from the slot.

Calgary opened the scoring at 11:35 of the second period. Jarome Iginla crossed the Sharks' blue line and dropped the puck to Hamrlik, who skated in and fired a hard slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle over Nabokov's shoulder.

Notes: Donovan, who returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch the previous game, has gone 21 games without a goal. ... San Jose LW Nils Ekman was a scratch for the third time in four games. Ekman was second on the Sharks with 55 points in the 2003-04 season.