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Huselius scores 100th career goal as Flames dump Avalanche

Feb 18, 2007 - 7:18 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Kristian Huselius and Jarome Iginla remain thorns in the side of the Colorado Avalanche.

Huselius scored twice to reach the 100-goal plateau and Iginla added a tally and an assist for the Calgary Flames, who posted just their second win in six games, a 5-2 victory over the Avalanche.

Rebounding from Thursday's 7-5 loss to Colorado, the Flames topped the Avalanche for the sixth time in the last seven encounters and raised their home record to 24-6-1 this season.

"I think the whole team played well and it was a huge game for us," Huselius said. "It's always nice to get the two points. It's always nice to contribute, but the key thing is we won."

"I think we took them lightly last game, especially when we got a lead," Flames center Daymond Langkow said. "We kind of sat back. We can't do that against a team like that. They're pretty explosive up front. We buckled down on defense."

Huselius, who had two goals and an assist at Colorado on January 11, opened the scoring at 2:59 of the second period, when he converted defenseman Andrei Zyuzin's cross-ice feed past goaltender Peter Budaj's left pad.

"I was kind of going behind the net a little bit," Huselius said. "Zyuzin just threw it at the net and it was just an empty net. It was a great feeling to score the first one."

With the Flames leading, 3-2, Huselius reached his milestone by completing his sixth multi-goal game of the season in the third period with a bad-angle shot from the left side that got under the crossbar.

"I think that Kristian is benefiting from a lot of hard work by Daymond Langkow," Calgary coach Jim Playfair said. "Kristian is obviously extremely skilled, and when his work ethic matches his skill level, he's really an effective player."

Coming off Thursday's two-goal outing, Iginla tied the contest at 2-2 on a power play with 5:05 left in the second period. It was the captain's 313th goal with the Flames, one shy of tying Joe Nieuwendyk for second place in franchise history.

Blue-liner Dion Phaneuf snapped the tie just 1:46 later by drilling a slap shot from the right faceoff circle off the left goalpost.

"We kind of had the feeling like we had to get it going," Flames center Matthew Lombardi said. "Jarome got that big goal for us. It kind of got us going.

"It was a good effort by all the guys. We knew what kind of game we had to play. We didn't change our game plan. Kristian capitalized on some big chances."

Stephane Yelle added a shorthanded empty-netter and netminder Miikka Kiprusoff made 24 saves for Calgary, which pulled even in points (70) with first-place Vancouver in the Northwest Division.

"I think you get into a compete mind set where you've got to compete harder in certain areas," Playfair said. "I thought that we did that. We had a heavy push in the second period and we were able to push back at the end. Special teams did a big job for us tonight. Our top players were good players."

Andrew Brunette scored his 21st goal, rookie Paul Stastny added his 19th and Budaj stopped 25 shots for the Avalanche, who will host the Flames on Tuesday after visiting the Canucks on Sunday.

"A couple of power-play goals, a couple of little mistakes came back to bite us," Stastny said. "I think once we were down, we couldn't get another one going."

"We were in the penalty box nice and early," Colorado left wing Ian Laperriere said. "You spend a lot of time on the (penalty kill) and some guys get cold on the bench and they don't play. At this part of the season, we have to stay out of the box."

Colorado failed to score on three power-play chances after entering 8-for-23 in its previous five contests.