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Langkow, Huselius help get Flames closer to playoffs

Apr 1, 2007 - 6:12 AM VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Ticker) -- Daymond Langkow and Kristian Huselius led an early charge by the Calgary Flames. Miikka Kiprusoff withstood a late assault by the Vancouver Canucks.

Langkow scored a goal and set up two others, Huselius had a tally and an assist and Kiprusoff made half of his 32 saves in the third period as the Flames all but secured a playoff spot with a 3-2 triumph over the Canucks.

Craig Conroy also tallied for Calgary (43-25-10), which maintained its seven-point lead over Colorado (41-30-7) for the eighth and final postseason berth in the Western Conference. Both teams have four games remaining.

"Other teams are playing really, really well, and Colorado's not going away," Conroy said. "Nobody's saying, 'I've got to do this or do that,' right now. It's all about the team right now."

Langkow got things off to a good start for the Flames, netting his 32nd goal of the season at 4:07 of the first period. He set up Conroy for a shorthanded tally 91 seconds into the middle session, then got the secondary assist on Huselius' goal 2:27 later as Calgary built a 3-0 cushion.

"Our first 25 minutes, we had some pretty bad breakdowns in our zone," said Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo, who made just 15 saves. It's tough to come back against a team like Calgary when you're down 3-0. We played hard in the second half to try to come back, but it obviously wasn't enough."

The three-goal bulge remained intact until Brendan Morrison broke through 6 1/2 minutes into the third with his 20th goal. Captain Markus Naslund drew Vancouver within one with less than four minutes to go, and the Canucks kept applying the pressure the rest of the way.

But Kiprusoff was equal to the task, turning aside the final three shots he faced - including two in the waning seconds - to seal Calgary's sixth straight victory.

"Our defensive play has been a lot better these last six or seven games," Langkow said. "That's been the key to our success.

"(Kiprusoff) was tremendous again. With the game on the line, he comes up big for us, especially the latter part of the third."

Matt Cooke recorded two assists for the Canucks (47-24-7), who remained three points ahead of the second-place Minnesota Wild (45-26-8) in the Northwest Division. The Flames are five back with four games left.

"I didn't think it was a terrible game by our side," Naslund said. "We've got to be sharper, though, and we can't give up the odd-man rushes and the chances they got because they're too talented of a team."

From the right faceoff dot, Langkow beat Luongo to the glove side with a one-timer off a feed from Huselius to give the Flames a 1-0 lead.

With Huselius in the penalty box for tripping, Langkow slipped a pass past defenseman Lukas Krajicek during a 2-on-1 rush to Conroy, who tapped it by Luongo from alone on the doorstep early in the second to double the advantage.

Huselius knocked in a rebound from alone on the right side at 3:58 of the period to make it 3-0, but Cooke pounced on a turnover behind Calgary's net in the third and made a backhand pass to Morrison, who scored from in front to get Vancouver on the board.

Naslund cut the deficit to a goal with 3:54 remaining, when his chance near the left post was knocked in by the blocker of Kiprusoff during a mad scramble on a power play.

"I know our power play got us a late goal there, but it gave up a goal earlier," Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault said. "Early on, they made us pay for our mistakes. But what this group has done is, they played hard. We didn't quit tonight. We tried to come back."