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.

After winning Game 5 in St. Louis 6-3 on Monday night, they returned home to the excitement of a possible clincher. While the Blues are making another goalie switch, putting Brian Elliott back in net after going with Jake Allen the past two games, and figuring out how to get top goal scorer Vladimir Tarasenko back on his game after being shut down for five games, the focus for the Sharks is simpler.

The Blues hope the move back to Elliott gives them a boost. Elliott started the first 17 games of the playoffs before coach Ken Hitchcock went to Allen in Game 4 in San Jose.

St. Louis won that game 6-3 to tie the series at two games apiece but Allen gave up four goals on 25 shots Monday night. That led to Hitchcock changing again to Elliott, who stopped 62 of 65 shots in St. Louis' Game 7 wins over Chicago and Dallas earlier in the playoffs.

More importantly, the Blues would like to get Tarasenko going. He scored 40 goals in the regular season and had 13 points in 14 games the first two rounds but has been completely shut down by Vlasic and San Jose's defense in the conference final.

Tarasenko has a -4 rating for the series and has managed only four shots on goal the past three games.