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Iginla collects three points as Flames top Oilers

Jan 1, 2007 - 5:47 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- It has been nearly five years since Jarome Iginla won the Art Ross Trophy. He'd like to achieve that honor again.

Iginla had a goal and two assists and Miikka Kiprusoff made 22 saves as the Calgary Flames won for the 12th time in their last 13 home games with a 4-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.

Coming off Friday's four-point night against the Los Angeles Kings, Iginla raised his point total to 52 and moved into a three-way tie with Atlanta's Marian Hossa and Jaromir Jagr of the New York Rangers for second place in the league scoring race.

"They were very desperate," Iginla said. "I thought we did a good job of sticking with what we wanted to do. We got some power plays. They had theirs, too. Altogether, every single guy was ready for this game."

"I think Jarome on most nights has been our best player," Flames coach Jim Playfair said. "He has a real burning passion to be a top player and help lead our team. ... I am impressed with his ability to kill penalties. I'm impressed with his ability to stay on task and be available last minute of the game, last minute of the periods."

Iginla opened the scoring at 5:48 of the first period with a one-timer from the top of the slot that beat goaltender Dwayne Roloson inside the left goalpost for his 22nd tally.

"We put a lot of pressure on them on the forecheck," Iginla said. "We were skating. We were doing what we want to do. We were drawing penalties. We got some good results. They came back with a push and we were able to get the win."

Nearly four minutes later, Iginla set up Daymond Langkow, who netted his 15th goal on the doorstep inside the right post to give the Flames a 2-0 lead.

"I think we did a lot better job for 60 minutes," Langkow said. "We played with more confidence and played with more desperation for the whole game."

Iginla needed just 49 seconds of the second session to collect his second assist of the game and 30th of the season by feeding Dion Phaneuf, who scored on a power play past Roloson's left pad.

Chuck Kobasew added his fourth goal of the campaign and Kiprusoff raised his record to 18-13-3 for Calgary.

"We have so much confidence in (Kiprusoff)," Iginla said. "We haven't been playing in front of him as tight as we should. He made huge timely saves. He was there on the first-minute breakaway by Ryan Smyth. Those get forgotten sometimes as the game goes on."

Smyth scored twice and Roloson stopped 20 shots for the Oilers, who dropped their fourth straight game and again failed to record their 1,000th win.

"I'm reasonably happy with the way we played," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "But we got victimized again by (another) flagrant mistake. We've done that now for the last three games. We're giving the opposition at times an easy offense, and not capitalizing wholly on your own opportunities is a tough couple of things to overcome."

"When things go bad, it's tough to stay positive," Edmonton center Shawn Horcoff said. "We're at the halfway mark here and definitely gone through a bad stretch of games. We've got to stop it as soon as we can and get back to playing our style of hockey."