Sharks coach Darryl Sutter had no choice. He had a sick goalie and a must-win game. So, moments before his club hit the Shark Tank ice for Game 4 of its series with the Blues, the stone-faced benchmeister jumped up on a stool, loosened his tie, eyed his troops and his implored the boys to "win one for the Kipper!"

Well, okay, the stoic Sutter ain't that kind of guy. He didn't leap up onto a stool. And, no, he didn't fool with his neckware or pull a Knute Rockne out of his bag of coaching tricks. But he did have a Kipper -- Finnish-born rookie goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. And, because No. 1 goalie Evgeni Nabokov had the flu, Kipper skated into the Sharks' crease for the crucial playoff game.

And as it turned out, the inexperienced Kipper won one for the Sharks, who evened the ugly series at two games apiece with a 3-2 win (Game 5 in St. Louis on Thursday). The 25-year-old Kiprusoff, who spent most of the season backstopping San Jose's AHL affiliate in Kentucky and mopped up a 6-3 loss in Game 3, was cool to the Blues' fire. He displayed great side-to-side quickness and didn't get ruffled by nasty crease-calls from the snarly likes of Keith Tkachuk and Dallas Drake. The Kipper finished with 39 stops, including a beauty of a glove save on a breakaway wrister off the blade of Blues C Mike Eastwood late in the second period.

When the final horn sounded, Kiprusoff seemed unaffected by the triumph. He didn't jump up and down. He didn't dive into the arms of his teammates. Instead, the Kipper (yes, Kipper is written across the bottom of his teal mask) stood calmly in his crease, waiting for a post-game scrum to end. When it did, he simply accepted the congratulations of his teammates and skated to the dressing room.

Now Sutter has a very difficult decision: Who starts Game 5, the Kipper or the Sicker (Nabokov)? Remember, Nabokov was great in a Game 2 win and seems unbeatable away from the Shark Tank (He had the league's best road GAA and save percentage).

Good luck with this call, Darryl. Not that this helps you, but I think we both know who Rockne would choose.

E.J. Hradek covers hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.