LOS ANGELES -- Rule One: In the Stanley Cup playoffs, always look ahead. Never behind.

Rule Two: When a team pulls off the NHL's biggest playoff comeback victory in 27 years and possibly crushes the soul of an opponent, abandon Rule One.

Tuesday night's overtime victory by the Sharks is already being called a classic. That can happen when a team claws from four goals behind on the road to win a game that the Los Angeles Kings surely figured was in the bag.

Instead, the Sharks ripped the bag open. So it deserves a closer look. We all witnessed what happened on the ice in the 6-5 overtime victory. But here's what we didn't see: What happened in the Sharks' locker room between periods. It must have been significant. It could also hint at what will happen with this Sharks team moving ahead.

Each period in Tuesday's game -- and the overtime -- was so radically different from the other. So if you were searching for reasons the Sharks pulled off their comeback, you'd think that those three 17-minute intermissions behind the locker room doors might yield some clues.

They did.

First intermission

The Sharks traipsed off the ice in a quiet funk. They were behind on the scoreboard, 3-0, after goalie Antti Niemi allowed an inexplicable goal off his glove and two other scores. Coach Todd McLellan and his assistants entered their office for a traditional short skull session before addressing the team.


After playing such a lousy Game 2 last Saturday, the Sharks had been warned by McLellan about another slow start Tuesday. He had every right to light them up verbally. But at their meeting, the coaches decided to " do nothing, basically. "It wasn't the time for it," McLellan said. "We were behind by three goals, but some of it was bounces and breaks and I know Nemo would like to have that first goal back. And it wasn't as bad as some of the play we had in Game 2."

Hence, the decision was made to let the players handle any motivational speeches themselves. They decided to encourage each other.

"I thought we hadn't played too bad," said Patrick Marleau. "We just knew we had to go back out there and keep at it."

"We thought if we could get one goal," said Logan Couture, "we could get a couple more."

"Guys were a little mad at ourselves," said Devin Setoguchi. "I do remember someone said, 'No more against. No more goals.' We knew we could come back from 3-0 but couldn't allow them to score any more goals. So then, of course, they came out and got one in the first minute of the second."

Second intermission

Talk about a 180-degree emotional tectonic plate shift. The locker room doors opened after two periods with a boisterous shout. After two periods, the score was tied at 5-5 after the greatest offensive playoff period in San Jose hockey history.

Yes, that first-minute Los Angeles goal had given the Kings a 4-0 lead and resulted in Niemi being pulled. But then the Sharks' afterburners kicked in with goal after goal. And after Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski capped off the startling rally with their two goals in the final two minutes of the period ...

"We came into the room and some guys were really charged up, yelling and screaming," Couture said. "But our team leaders said, 'Hey, catch your breath. Calm down. It's not over. It's just 0-0 again.'"

"There was a lot of excitement," affirmed captain Joe Thornton. "But I thought, 'We haven't done anything yet.' So we talked about that."

"We reminded ourselves," said Setoguchi, "that this was what we talked about the whole year, this was where we worked so hard to get -- to this point. So let's not blow it."

Niemi, several players mentioned, also helped by offering supportive words to them and his replacement, Antero Niittymaki. As for the coaches, given how well their leave-the-players-alone policy had worked before period two, the strategy stayed the same before period three. McLellan gave the team "a few reminders" about details for the upcoming 20 minutes and that was it.

Intermission before overtime

Neither team scored in the third, as the Sharks and Kings buttoned down defensively. Both teams were also showing signs of weariness. So this intermission consisted of largely replenishing fluids and focusing on the first few minutes of overtime, when history shows that the winning goals are usually scored.

In that regard, the Sharks' greater playoff experience probably helped. Over the previous three years, they'd played in seven playoff overtime games and had won five. The Kings had played in just three and had lost two. A quiet confidence floated amid the Sharks' locker stalls.

"I think it was as calm as it's ever been in our room," Couture said.

The coaches did some talking this time. They'd mostly been using nine of the 12 Sharks forwards through the second and third periods. But once a game enters overtime, there's no guarantee about how long it will go. To ward off fatigue, the plan was to work the other three forwards onto the ice if the period dragged on.

After explaining that, however, McLellan left the last few moments to the players before they took the ice. Thornton took advantage.

"We've been through a lot as a group," Thornton said. "We talked about how we had a great chance to do something special."

Slightly over three minutes into overtime, Setoguchi's goal finished off the victory. Thornton and Marleau were alongside him on the ice. The Kings were stunned. The Sharks were celebrating. How did they ever accomplish such a feat?

Maybe it's because they also won the intermissions.