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Iginla, Huselius helps Flames rally past Panthers

Dec 12, 2007 - 5:28 AM SUNRISE, Florida (Ticker) -- Jarome Iginla tied the game late in regulation and Kristian Huselius scored the decisive goal in the shootout as the Calgary Flames posted a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 32 shots for the Flames, who have won three of their last four games.

Iginla tied the contest with 10.2 seconds left in the third period and neither team was able to tally in overtime, setting the stage for Huselius and Kiprusoff to come through in the shootout.

Florida's Nathan Horton was the first shooter of the bonus format, but Kiprusoff stopped his backhand attempt. Huselius followed by beating goaltender Tomas Vokoun with a backhander.

"It was nice to see it go in," said Huselius, a former Panther who was traded to Calgary by current Flames coach Mike Keenan when he was Florida's general manager. "We've been playing well lately, we just haven't gotten the wins."

Captain Olli Jokinen, who scored Florida's lone goal, appeared to lose control of the puck on a backhand attempt and was easily denied by Kiprusoff. After Owen Nolan was stopped, Kiprusoff got in front of Stephen Weiss' backhander to seal the win.

Calgary trailed, 1-0, for almost the entire game, but a key play came when the Flames replaced Kiprusoff with an extra attacker.

Defenseman Anders Eriksson blocked a shot in front of the Flames' empty net and, seconds later, Iginla fired a shot from the left faceoff circle over Vokoun's shoulder to tie the game at 1-1.

"That's his job," Keenan joked, referring to Eriksson. "You have to have some breaks in a situation like that, and we got the rebound opportunity and Jarome was the right guy to pick it up. The important thing is, in the third period, we were tenacious enough to come back and get it done."

"I just turned around and got it off," Iginla said. "You barely know the time left at that point. You don't know if it's 10 seconds, one second, 15 or whatever. ... It was definitely a good break. I just turned around and whipped it."

That goal ended Vokoun's bid for a second straight shutout. The 13-year veteran stopped 25 shots in a 3-0 win over the New York Islanders on Friday before turning aside 34 in this one.

"(Iginla) plays hard, but when you look at the goal they scored, it was just like ours - it was a dirty goal around the net," Vokoun said. "That's 85 percent of the goals in this league, they are scored that way. If you pay the price and work hard, eventually it's going to pay off for you."

Neither team could break though in overtime despite excellent opportunities. Kiprusoff made a great sprawling stop of a backhand shot by Richard Zednik, while Vokoun denied defenseman Dion Phaneuf's breakaway chance minutes later.

Jokinen took advantage of a turnover to put Florida ahead in the second period.

Daymond Langkow tried to clear a rebound out of his own crease but backhanded it right to Jokinen, who fired a shot over Kiprusoff's right shoulder with 3:57 remaining in the session.

It was the 16th goal of the season for Jokinen, who has a five-game points streak.

"Losing is no fun," Jokinen said. "To take something positive, we got one point. It's a tough way to lose the game."