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Iginla keeps Flames rolling in win over Canucks

Dec 10, 2006 - 6:04 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- As captain Jarome Iginla goes, so go the Calgary Flames.

Iginla scored a goal and added two assists as the Flames defeated the Vancouver Canucks, 5-3, for their fourth win in five games.

The star right wing extended his goal-scoring streak to five games, in which he also has set up four tallies.

"We like it at home," Iginla said. "The crowd was pumped up tonight. Playing at home all the way around has been good."

"You got to believe that our guys didn't want to get embarrassed," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "Obviously we played better in the third. We didn't have the start we needed to have. We played the night before and spent a lot of energy killing penalties. It was just not the right way to start."

Iginla scored his goal at 6:06 of the third period when he bulled his way in front of the net and poked the puck past Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo for a 3-1 lead. Kristian Huselius had a goal and an assist, while defenseman Dion Phaneuf, Matthew Lombardi and Alex Tanguay also scored for Calgary.

The Flames took a 2-1 first-period lead on goals by Huselius and Phaneuf and outshot the Canucks, 17-6.

"Our focus tonight was to have a really good first period," Calgary coach Jim Playfair said. "It was to come out and establish our game in the first period and we drew some penalties. We should have scored another goal or two on the 5-on-3 but we talked about it. We knew they were going to make a heavy push in the third period and we bent but we didn't break, and that's the bottom line."

Lombardi's tally at 9:43 of the second period proved to be the winner. With the Flames already ahead, 3-1, the center stuffed the puck past goaltender Dany Sabourin for his ninth of the season.

Miikka Kiprusoff made 26 saves for the Flames, who extended their home winning streak to nine games. Calgary has outscored its opponents, 32-9, in that span.

Kiprusoff entered with the third-lowest goals-against average (2.00) and the highest-ranked .931 save percentage.

Daniel Sedin, Jan Bulis and defenseman Kevin Bieksa scored for the Canucks, who fell to 2-8-1 against Northwest Division rivals this season.

"It's was not pleasant, that's for sure," said Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo, who was replaced after Lombardi's goal. "We got a lot of penalties in the first period. We had trouble getting any momentum going. It seemed like the second half of the game we kind of picked up a bit."

Luongo recorded 20 saves while Sabourin finished 13.

Vancouver scored three or more goals for only the third time in their last 17 games.