Picking 18-year-old hockey players in a draft is a crapshoot. Patience, patience, patience and only if you're lucky will a pick pay off. Last night was a scouting staff's dream come true.

In 1997, the San Jose Sharks chose center Patrick Marleau and defenseman Scott Hannan -- both products of the Western Hockey League -- in the first round of the league's entry draft. Marleau was selected second overall after Boston tabbed consensus top choice Joe Thornton. A few hours later, with the 23rd pick (acquired from Carolina), the Sharks added Hannan.

Now, five years later, those two high draft picks are filling vital roles for the Sharks as they chase their first Cup.

Both Marleau and Hannan were big contributors in the club's 6-3 win over the defending champion Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Wednesday in Denver.

Marleau, centering on a suddenly-potent second line for right winger Teemu Selanne and left winger Marco Sturm, tallied a goal and assists in the win. The goal, a laser of a 50-foot wrist shot that sailed over Patrick Roy's glove, caromed off the post and into the net midway through the third period, stopped a comeback bid by the Avs and quieted their sellout crowd.

This spring, the 22-year-old Marleau leads the club with four goals and eight points and has scored at least one point in each of the Sharks' six playoff games.

"He's got great talent and he's playing with a lot of confidence," says Selanne, who broke out of a 13-game playoff goal-scoring drought with a pair of markers on Wednesday. "Right now, he seems unstoppable."

Selected as a "can't miss prospect," the 6-foot-2, 220-pound Marleau joined the club less than a month after his 18th birthday. Since then, he has done a lot of on-the-job training at the NHL level. It's been a bumpy ride, which included being a healthy scratch in recent playoff campaigns. Now, those tough years -- and management's patience -- are starting to pay off for San Jose.

Marleau's productive play on the second line gives the Sharks a very balanced (and tough to check) attack. In fact, thus far, the Sharks have gotten very little offense out of their top line of center Vincent Damphousse, left winger Adam Graves and right winger Owen Nolan. Instead, it's been Marleau's line and the gritty third line (the best third line in the game) of center Mike Ricci, left winger Scott Thornton and right winger Niklas Sundstrom that has done most of the scoring.

On the back end, coach Darryl Sutter has paired Hannan with oversized (6-5, 235) vet Mike Rathje, who also was a first-round Sharks pick (third overall in '92) and WHL grad.

On Wednesday, the duo spent a fair amount of time on the ice against Avs center Peter Forsberg. Hannan did a nice job getting under Forsberg's skin. In one third period sequence, just seconds before Marleau's back-breaking goal, Hannan popped Forsberg with several straight (and unpenalized) lefts in front of the Sharks bench. Later, in the final two minutes, he exchanged some facewashes with Forsberg. This time, both earned two minute roughing penalties.

No doubt, Sutter has a ton of confidence in the 23-year-old Hannan, who played 22 minutes and 30 seconds over 27 shifts. Only Rathje, who logged 23:03, had more ice time.

As the Sharks move deeper into the postseason, the pressure on these two homegrown talents will grow. So, you have to wonder if they can maintain their composure. Right now, though, these 1997 draft classmates are giving everyone in the organization something to smile about.

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