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Flames beat Wild to move into first place

Feb 24, 2008 - 10:47 PM By Mike Weimerskirch PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) - Miikka Kiprusoff and the Calgary Flames enjoyed another trip to Minnesota.

Kiprusoff made 38 saves and Daymond Langkow and Craig Conroy provided the necessary scoring as the Calgary Flames defeated the Minnesota Wild, 2-1, on Sunday.

Brent Burns had a chance for the Wild in the final seconds as he circled around the net, but Kiprusoff reached out with his left pad to stop the defenseman's stuff attempt just before time expired.

"He's made huge saves for us at key times," Langkow said of his netminder. "We couldn't ask anything more than that."

The Flames won for the second time in three tries in Minnesota and have been victorious in five of the six meetings this season. The win moves Calgary into first place in the Northwest Division, one point ahead of the Wild and two better than the Vancouver Canucks.

Calgary has won four straight games in regulation, all against Western Conference opponents. The Flames trailed the Wild by six points heading into Tuesday but have gained seven points in the standings in the past six days while going 4-0-0.

"It been an enjoyable week," said captain Jarome Iginla, who assisted on Langkow's goal. "(Kiprusoff) has played real well all year, but he's been pretty much unbeatable this week."

The Flames opened the scoring at 12:35 of the first period with their seventh power-play goal in the last eight games. Langkow deflected Iginla's pass at the top of the crease past goaltender Niklas Backstrom.

"(Iginla) and I talked, as the two guys down low, that if we had the chance to just fire it across the crease and catch them off guard," Langkow said. "It (Iginla's pass) was right on my tape."

Conroy scored the eventual game-winner with 6:08 left in the second period, firing a wrist shot into the upper left corner while on a 2-on-2 break.

"We knew (the Wild) were going to come right out after us, but we started to feel a lot better in the second," Conroy said.

The Wild had a great opportunity moments before Conroy's goal, when Kiprusoff stopped Pierre-Marc Bouchard on a breakaway.

Minnesota had more than five minutes of power-play time at the end of the second period, and finally broke through in the third period. Mark Parrish knocked home his own rebound on the power play just 38 seconds into the final session.

It was not enough as the Wild suffered their third straight loss.

"You've got to come up with wins and we're just not finding a way to do that right now," Parrish said. "It's frustrating when the work ethic is there."

It was Parrish's first goal after celebrating the birth of his daughter on Tuesday.

Kiprusoff shut down the Wild the rest of the way, including a big save on Branko Radivojevic with 15 minutes remaining. Kiprusoff has a 1.70 goals-against average in 26 career starts against the Wild.

"(Kiprusoff) played great and we expect a guy like that to play at that level," Parrish added.

The Flames elected to play conservatively with the lead, managing only 11 shots in the final two periods. But Kiprusoff frustrated the Wild by making 17 saves in the second period and 13 in the third.

"After they got the goal early in the third period, we played smart again, like we've been doing lately," Kiprusoff said.

Minnesota's Backstrom faced just 16 shots.

"We've played three division leaders (this week) and luckily we've been able to beat them all," Conroy said.