Sharks win, will finish third in Pacific

SAN JOSE -- The San Jose Sharks will finish third in the Pacific Division following a 3-1 win against the Calgary Flames at SAP Center on Saturday.
The Sharks will open the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the road against the division's second-place finisher. The Edmonton Oilers secured home-ice advantage in the Western Conference First Round with a 3-2 win against the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday. The Sharks will face either the Oilers or Anaheim Ducks in the first round.

"It doesn't really matter for us what kind of building we go into," Sharks forward Chris Tierney said. "We've been able to win tough games on the road before. I think when you go on the road in a playoff game, you dial in even more almost than home ice."
WATCH: All Flames vs. Sharks highlights
Calgary clinched the first wild card in the West midway through the first period of their game when the Nashville Predators lost 2-1 to the Winnipeg Jets. The Flames and Predators have 94 points, but the Flames have the tiebreaker with 41 regulation/overtime wins to the Predators' 39.
The Flames will open the playoffs on the road against the Ducks or Oilers.
"Now it's time to go," Flames forward Matt Stajan said. "We better be ready. I think we could have been better tonight. But at the same time, you look forward to starting the playoffs. That's what we play for. We're going to be doing a lot of scouting and homework for the first round."
Tierney, Mikkel Boedker and Danny O'Regan scored for the Sharks (46-29-7). Aaron Dell made 20 saves.

"Nice to finish with a win," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "I thought the guys played hard. I thought we played the right way. Dell gave us another good game, which is comforting going into the playoffs. There's some good things there. Obviously you can't take too much from it, based on the lineups in both dressing rooms. I'd rather win than lose, and I think our guys feel good getting ready for the playoffs."
Curtis Lazar scored for the Flames (45-33-4). Brian Elliott made 15 saves through the first two periods but was replaced at the start of the third by David Rittich, who was called up from Stockton of the American Hockey League and made nine saves in his NHL debut.
Tierney gave the Sharks a 1-0 lead at 4:38 of the second period with his 11th goal of the season. He took a pass from Jannik Hansen and scored from point-blank range.

Boedker made it 2-0 at 18:07 of the second when he scored on a wrist shot from left of the crease.
The Flames made it 2-1 with six seconds left in the second period on Lazar's first goal of the season and first in four games since being traded by the Ottawa Senators on March 1.
O'Regan scored his first NHL goal at 11:25 of the third period to make it 3-1 on a deflection.

Goal of the game

Boedker skated left to right through the slot and beat Elliott with a wrist shot before he could get across the crease.

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Save of the game

Dell made an acrobatic blocker save of Michael Frolik's snap shot at 19:31 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

After a Flames giveaway, Hansen took the puck below the goal line and sent it to Tierney, who had established position in front of the crease. Tierney beat Elliott with a shot inside the left post.

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Unsung performance of the game

Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson made his NHL debut and had four hits and two blocked shots in 18:33 of ice time. He had been a healthy scratch for 14 straight games since being called up from Stockton on March 10.

They said it

"I think for us, we were missing a lot of important pieces tonight. But anytime you finish the regular season, you want to have a little momentum. We had a tough March and a first bit of April, but we're going to build on this." -- Sharks defenseman Brenden Dillon
"The coaching staff has to dig in here and come up with a plan. We have to prepare for two scenarios. The important thing is we're healthy, and that's big. I also like our energy." -- Flames coach Glen Gulutzan

Need to know

Joe Pavelski was scratched, ending his streak of consecutive games played at 495. Forwards Tomas Hertl and Joel Ward, and defenseman Justin Braun were also scratched. … The Flames scratched defensemen Mark Giordano and Deryk Engelland, and forwards Mikael Backlund and Kris Versteeg. ... Sharks defenseman Brent Burns finished with 29 goals, one shy of becoming the ninth defenseman in NHL history to score at least 30 in a season. Late in the game, the Sharks had Burns take a shift at forward, hoping he'd get No. 30. "Pretty cool that they did that," Burns said. ... Sharks forwards Joe Thornton (left knee) and Logan Couture (teeth) did not play. ... Forwards Timo Meier, O'Regan and Barclay Goodrow were called up from San Jose of the AHL.

What's next

Flames: Game 1 of Western Conference First Round, TBD
Sharks: Game 1 of Western Conference First Round, TBD