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Flames rally to beat Blackhawks, solidify hold on eighth place

Mar 25, 2007 - 11:48 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- The Calgary Flames woke up at the right time.

Stephane Yelle scored on a deflection 48 seconds into the third period and defenseman Roman Hamrlik fired a shot past Nikolai Khabibulin with 6:11 left as the Flames posted a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Calgary (40-25-10) won its third straight and increased its lead over Colorado (38-29-7) to seven points in the race for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"We appeared to be sleeping through the first two periods, but we picked it up as a team," Hamrlik said.

The Flames entered with a league-low nine road wins and appeared to be on the verge of losing to Chicago (27-39-9), which is tied with Phoenix for last place in the Western Conference.

Calgary got off to a fast start as Kristian Huselius scored his 32nd goal of the season 2:01 into the game.

But Radim Vrbata scored 3:54 later and Denis Arkhipov deflected a shot past Miikka Kiprusoff with 5:59 left in the first period to give the Blackhawks a 2-1 lead.

The advantage held until defenseman Dion Phaneuf blasted a low shot between the faceoff circles and Yelle deflected it past a screened Khabibulin.

Wayne Primeau set up Hamrlik's goal, winning a faceoff from Martin Lapointe and steering the puck to the left point.

"I take pride in winning them (faceoffs)," Primeau said. "I was able to get it back to Hamrlik and he let loose a great shot."

Hamrlik snapped a shot over Khabibulin's glove for his sixth goal of the season.

"The puck came right in front of me and there was no reason to pass," Hamrlik said. "Nothing is better for a defenseman than a set-up like that. It was a perfect set-up, and it was a good shot by me."

Moments earlier, Khabibulin had been hit flush on the mask by a high shot by Phaneuf. Play was stopped, setting up the faceoff which was won by Primeau.

The win started a four-game road trip for Calgary, which heads to Minnesota for back-to-back contests on Tuesday and Thursday.

"This was a great way to start our road trip, getting two points on the road during an afternoon game," Flames coach Jim Playfair said.

The loss was the fifth in a row for the Blackhawks, who have a total of eight goals in the skid.

"This is one of the things that is part of our learning process, putting away games in the third period," Blackhawks defenseman Duncan Keith said. "We made a couple of mistakes against them and the puck ended up in our net. That was the story of the game."

Martin Havlat, Chicago's leading scorer, was held without a goal for the 12th straight game. Peter Bondra returned after missing four games with a shoulder injury.

Huselius, who is second on the Flames in goals, beat Khabibulin with a wrist shot from the left circle.

Vrbata tied it when he skated from the left corner to the net and stuffed a shot under Kiprusoff's pads.

Arkhipov cut through the right circle and redirected Brent Seabrook's drive from the point past Kiprusoff.