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Lombardi, Bertuzzi lead Flames over Oilers

Feb 22, 2009 - 8:04 AM EDMONTON, Alberta (Ticker) -- Every time the Edmonton Oilers pushed, the Calgary Flames shoved right back.

Matthew Lombardi forged a tie with 65 seconds remaining in the third period and Todd Bertuzzi netted the lone goal in the first round of a shootout as the Flames edged the Oilers, 3-2, on Saturday.

Captain Jarome Iginla scored in regulation and Miikka Kiprusoff made 26 saves for Calgary, which erased a pair of deficits en route to winning for the fourth time in five games.

"It's a big win for our team," Flames defenseman Dion Phaneuf said. "They're not always going to be pretty but especially on the road in (Rexall Place) against a team that played very hard. The effort was there, but it was not pretty. But you've got to win those ones, too."

Erik Cole and Ales Hemsky tallied while Dwayne Roloson stopped 30 shots for Edmonton, which has lost three in a row following a three-game winning streak.

"Over the course of 82 games, you are going to lose a couple in the last minute or two," Oilers center Shawn Horcoff said. "We'll take the point and move on at this point in the season.

"We don't have any time to sit and dwell on negatives. They're a good hockey team and we played a good game against them. Obviously we would have like two points, but we only got the one."

Lombardi leveled the contest late in the third by accepting a pass from Curtis Glencross and firing a slap shot from above the right faceoff circle to notch his ninth goal of the season.

"They're up 2-1 and you come out of there and you almost know going into it, you know you're going to find a way to tie it," Iginla said. "When you get those, you know right there it could go either way and it always seems to work like that."

In the first round of the bonus format, Bertuzzi used several dekes before sliding a backhanded shot between a diving Roloson and the right post to give the Flames an early edge.

"You know what, Bert's got a lot of moves," Lombardi said. "We know he's real good on those penalty shots, he's got so many moves, you never know what he's going to pull out. The other night on the other penalty shot, I didn't know what he was going to do and he comes out with the spin-o-rama.

"I don't know if someone else knew what he was going to do, but he pulled out a great move and got us the game winner so that's great."

Sam Gagner failed to pull Edmonton even in the next set, losing the puck while skating toward Kiprusoff.

Iginla's hard backhander bounced off the top goalpost and Kiprusoff poked away Robert Nilsson's attempt in the second round.

"I can't think of a way to make it any easier on the goalie than what we did in the shootout tonight," Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. "The shootout was very disappointing."

After Roloson denied Mike Cammalleri's wrist shot, Kiprusoff secured the win by extending his stick at a charging Hemsky, who was not able to get off a clean shot.

"It was a competitive game and it was a game we expected to be tight, considering that it was a divisional game and of course the view of the standings, we knew Edmonton would be well-prepared and come at us hard," Flames coach Mike Keenan said. "We talked about being aggressive before the game and that's what we were expecting."

Cole opened the scoring with 7:34 left in the first, but Iginla tied the game with 3:20 remaining in the following session.

"I think we wanted to stick with it," Lombardi said. "We were doing some good things, getting pucks deep in their zone and cycling it and taking pucks to the net. Roloson played well in net and made some big saves and (Kiprusoff) kept us in the game making some big saves for us.

"A tight game like that, anything can happen and we got the two points so that's what's important."

Hemsky gave Edmonton the upper hand once again by unleashing a slap shot from below the right circle that sailed by Kiprusoff at 1:46 of the third for a 2-1 advantage.

Making his seventh straight start, Kiprusoff improved to 35-18-6 on the season. The Finn is now 13 victories away from tying New Jersey Devils star goaltender Martin Brodeur's mark of 48 for most wins in a single season, set in 2006-07.

With 23 games remaining on Calgary's schedule, Kiprusoff remains within striking distance.