Patrick Marleau, Sharks face biggest game in franchise history

Patrick Marleau has played more than 1,500 games with the San Jose Sharks since joining the NHL as an 18-year-old draft pick but never one quite like the next one.

All those past playoff disappointments that have seemed to define the career of players like Marleau and Joe Thornton could be put to the side temporarily with one more San Jose win.

For the first time in 25 seasons as an NHL franchise, the Sharks are just one win away from making the Stanley Cup final. San Jose takes a 3-2 lead over St. Louis in the Western Conference final into Game 6 on Wednesday night in what should be a frenzied Shark Tank.

"It's nice," Marleau said Tuesday. "It's not our final goal but it's as far as we've been so it's good that way. There's still a lot to go."

For more than a decade, the Sharks have been known as much for their post-season failures as their regular-season success. San Jose has the second-most wins and has played in the second-most playoff series since the start of the 2003-04 season but has fallen short every spring.

The Sharks won just three total games in their first three trips to the conference final — the closest a six-game loss to Calgary in 2004 —  lost an opening series as the top seed in 2009 and most memorably became the fourth NHL team ever to lose a best-of-seven series after winning the first three games against Los Angeles in 2014.

The Sharks then hit what they called rock bottom last year when they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2003 but rebounded this season under first-year coach Peter DeBoer and a core anchored by players like Thornton, Marleau, captain Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who have spent years trying to bring a title to San Jose.

"It would be huge," Marleau said. "It's something I've always wanted to do here for the fans and the Bay Area. They have been supporting us over the years and they deserve it."