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Iginla becomes Flames' No. 2 all-time goal-scorer

Feb 25, 2007 - 7:49 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- A milestone night for Jarome Iginla led to business as usual at home for the Calgary Flames.

Iginla had two goals and two assists and Daymond Langkow added a pair of tallies as the Flames opened a three-game homestand with a 7-4 victory over the San Jose Sharks.

Calgary's captain, Iginla recorded his sixth multi-goal game of the season to surpass Joe Nieuwendyk for second place in franchise history with 315 goals, trailing only Theoren Fleury (364).

"It's an honor to be ... second and to be up there with the guys like Theo and Joe Nieuwendyk," Iginla said. "It took me a little longer to get to where they were. I've played a few more games, but I've been very fortunate to play with some good players here. I've had some good opportunities."

Iginla snapped a 4-4 tie just 34 seconds into the third period, when he took Alex Tanguay's drop pass in the slot and beat goaltender Evgeni Nabokov for his 30th goal, marking the sixth consecutive season he has reached the plateau.

"We recognized that our top players had to be better than their top players," Flames coach Jim Playfair said. "The first period, I thought we weren't strong but got better in the areas of pushing the game back. I thought Jarome got stronger, individually, as the game went on. We certainly bent a little bit but didn't break."

After Mike Grier gave San Jose a 3-2 lead with a shorthanded goal late in the second period, Iginla netted his first tally of the game just eight seconds later by redirecting defenseman Roman Hamrlik's slap shot during a power play.

"Sometimes when things aren't going as well, they get a couple quick ones and you kind of sink," Iginla said. "But I thought we stuck right with it on the bench. We worked our way out of it. It was pretty cool. I think we scored twice right after they scored."

Blue-liner Kyle McLaren beat goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff for his fourth goal of the season with 64 seconds left in the middle session, giving the Sharks a 4-3 edge. However, Matthew Lombardi answered 29 seconds later by sliding the puck inside the right goalpost.

Langkow and Dion Phaneuf gave Calgary a 2-0 lead in the first period and Kiprusoff made 33 saves en route to his 30th victory of the campaign.

"It could be in the back of our minds, blowing a couple of leads lately," Langkow said. "Regardless of where it is, at home or on the road, it's a big win and that's what we need right now.

"There were no easy shifts out there along the boards. They've got a big strong team. I thought we did a good job battling them along the boards."

The Flames raised their home record to 25-6-1 and moved into a tie with the Minnesota Wild for second in the Northwest Division with 73 points, three behind the first-place Vancouver Canucks.

"I think when you look at the mind-set of our team, we know where we have to get a lot clearer," Playfair said. "It's about winning close games and tight games. Those come in wall battles. Those come in defensive zones. Those come in being first to the puck. In the third period, we got to a lot of loose pucks."

"Our penalty kill deserves a lot of the credit," Langkow said after the Flames allowed one power-play goal in seven chances. "They've got a really good power play and we shut them down pretty good. We got a huge goal from our captain at a perfect time, especially with blowing a couple leads. To get a goal early in the third was huge."

Blue-liner Matt Carle and Joe Pavelski scored and Nabokov stopped 16 shots for the Sharks, who concluded their season-high eight-game road trip at 4-4-0.

"(We) were struggling just to dump the puck," Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "We had a lot of people battling hard and to come back the way we did, we certainly deserved better. ... I don't have the answers for guys who are sound asleep on the bench."

"I think there were some breakdowns, obviously," San Jose center Curtis Brown said. "We did some things that you can't do, especially against a team like this and the position that we're in, going down the stretch to establish a playoff spot. There are things that we can definitely fix. It wasn't anything where they exposed us."

The Sharks ended a two-game winning streak after three consecutive losses and are three points in back of the Anaheim Ducks in the Pacific Division race.

"Obviously, the recipe for our success isn't rocket science," Brown said. "We've got to be smart at the blue lines, get it in, get it out, make all the little plays and then go down in their end (and) use our skill down there, our size. We can make it awful difficult on a defense like Calgary's."