Surprise starter Miikka Kiprusoff makes 39 saves as the Sharks try to bounce the Blues from the playoffs again. (AP)

The St. Louis Blues had no argument.

Kiprusoff made 39 saves in the second start of his career, and San Jose scored three second-period goals as the Sharks evened their playoff series with a 3-2 victory over the Blues on Tuesday night.

Game 5 is Thursday night in St. Louis, with Game 6 Saturday in San Jose.

Kiprusoff got the start when Evgeni Nabokov came down with the flu one night after allowing five goals in the first two periods of St. Louis' 6-3 victory in Game 3. After finding out he would start that morning, Kiprusoff simply gritted his teeth for the biggest night of his hockey life.

"I didn't even call my parents. I didn't want to make them nervous," Kiprusoff said. "I was a little nervous before the game, but once it started, I was OK. It was a goal of mine to start a playoff game. As a backup, you have to be ready all the time."

After a slow start, Kiprusoff rounded into sterling form while holding off an energetic St. Louis attack nearly all night. Dallas Drake scored a desperate goal for St. Louis with 24.8 seconds left, but Kiprusoff held on for his first playoff victory.

More importantly, the Sharks seemed to match the Blues' intensity and defensive effort for the first time in the series. St. Louis dominated long stretches of the first three games, but San Jose -- which played without two key defensemen -- was just as aggressive in Game 4.

While Kiprusoff kept his cool, the Blues -- most of whom knew nothing about Kiprusoff before Tuesday night -- lost theirs. St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville was disappointed in his team's lack of composure.

"We were trying to get back in the game, and we took a couple of penalties we didn't need to take," Quenneville said. "Every shift is important, every minute, and we can't forget that. Now we're going to go back (to St. Louis) and face a big game."

Though Quenneville didn't mention Chris Pronger by name, he wasn't happy with his captain's five minor penalties -- including a pointless high-sticking call with 1:15 to play that sent him to the locker room at a terrible time.

"You have to call it the same way at all times," Pronger fumed. "It was different in all three periods tonight. In the first it was one way. Earlier in the second it was another, and then in the third it was still another. Just be consistent, that's all we asked."

Keith Tkachuk's first goal of the postseason -- on a bizarre shot that bounced off the top of the net and rolled down Kiprusoff's body - put St. Louis up 1-0 with one second left in the first period.

But the Sharks responded with goals from Vincent Damphousse, Scott Thornton and Owen Nolan in the first 13 minutes of the second. In the third, San Jose's defense clamped down on the Blues, who produced a steady stream of shots but couldn't solve the latest goalie to emerge from San Jose's deep supply.

Kiprusoff found his rhythm when he made three rapid-fire saves during a sparkling sequence early in the second. He made his most spectacular stop 10 minutes later, when he cleanly gloved a blistering, close-range breakaway shot by Mike Eastwood -- one of 14 second-period saves.

"It's unbelievable the talent our goalies have," said Mike Ricci, who had two assists. "It's a huge game for Kipper to play the way he did. He's a great goalie in practice."

San Jose barely survived the frantic final two minutes, when the Blues pulled Roman Turek for an extra attacker but lost Tkachuk and Pronger to minor penalties during a scuffle with 1:13 left. Drake scored on a rebound but the Blues couldn't get an equalizer.

Nolan, who carried the Sharks through their upset of the Blues in last season's playoffs, got the eventual game-winning goal -- his first of the series -- midway through the second after Thornton put the Sharks ahead five minutes earlier.

San Jose also won despite a depleted defense. The Sharks, one of the NHL's best defensive teams in the regular season, played without Gary Suter, who has a concussion, and All-Star Marcus Ragnarsson, who has the flu.

Turek, who stopped 35 shots in Game 3, wasn't nearly as sharp Tuesday night. San Jose's goals from Thornton and Nolan came on stoppable shots, but Turek, who made 22 saves, was an instant slow on both occasions.

Tkachuk, who wasn't much of a factor in the series' first three games, kept a nearly constant presence in front of the San Jose net. But his goal was the result of two fortuitous bounces that also somehow beat the clock at the end of the first period.

While Tkachuk found the scoresheet, Teemu Selanne is still looking. The Sharks' big late-season acquisition again was active and had two shots, but he couldn't handle the puck on a wide-open chance with three minutes left. He has no points in four games.

Notes

• Sharks defenseman Bryan Marchment limped to the bench in agony early in the second period after a collision with Tkachuk. After a trip to the locker room, Marchment returned five minutes later.
• Thornton has as many goals in the series as he scored in his first 38 postseason games with Edmonton, Montreal and Dallas.
• St. Louis, 18-for-18 on penalty-kills in the series, killed 80 seconds of a two-man advantage for San Jose in the third period.

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