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Iginla's game-winner helps Joseph make history against Stars

Feb 21, 2008 - 6:22 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Curtis Joseph is new to the Calgary Flames. Captain Jarome Iginla made him feel right at home.

Iginla snapped a tie late in the third period and Joseph moved into a tie for third place on the NHL all-time wins list as the Calgary Flames ended a five-game road trip Wednesday with a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars.

Alex Tanguay scored twice for the Flames (31-22-8), who moved into seventh place in the Western Conference, two points ahead of idle Vancouver (30-22-8) for the final playoff spot.

Joseph signed with Calgary as a free agent on January 17 as the backup to Miikka Kiprusoff. He appeared in two games - one start - before Wednesday but had yet to record a win.

However, the 40-year-old veteran stopped 29 shots against the Stars en route to his 447th career victory, tying him with Hall of Famer Terry Sawchuk for third all time.

"This feels good," Joseph said. "I've been on a lot of good teams with good players. To be next to someone like Terry Sawchuk is a great honor."

"It was a huge win for him historically," Calgary coach Mike Keenan said. "I thought he'd be ready to compete. The team responded well in front of him."

With the game knotted at 2-2 in the third, All-Star defenseman Dion Phaneuf cleared the puck from his own zone, a move that appeared on the verge of being called icing. But Daymond Langkow beat Dallas defensemen Nicklas Grossman and Stephane Robidas to the puck behind the net and fed Iginla in the slot.

The All-Star captain wristed it past goaltender Marty Turco with 2:27 remaining to give Calgary a 3-2 lead. The goal was the 38th of the season for Iginla, who was drafted 11th overall by Dallas in 1995.

"It's a big win against a team that plays well at home," Iginla said. "It's something to build on. I didn't see it go in, but it was nice it went in there."

"I should have stayed in front and tried to block that pass," Robidas said. "It's my bad there, I should have made sure that pass doesn't come back in front, and I was a little bit too aggressive there."

The Stars had been rolling, posting a 9-1-0 record in their previous 10 outings since the All-Star break. Despite the loss, they still own the second-best record in the NHL at 37-22-5.

"We just made some crucial errors at the wrong time that cost us the game," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "I don't know how you could leave Iginla in front of the net, but we did. That's the difference in the game."

Tanguay snapped a 1-1 tie just 30 seconds into the third period with his second goal of the night and 13th of the season, firing a snap shot from the high slot over Turco's shoulder while shorthanded. The play immediately followed a alert one by Calgary defenseman Cory Sarich, who cleared the puck away from the goal line after Robidas' slap shot had squeezed by Joseph.

"It's part of being a good team - you get different contributors every night," Joseph said. "Cory made a great play to save a goal and Jarome scored the game-winner. You need different people to be a consistent team."

Dallas knotted it at 1:57 while still on the power play, when defenseman Mattias Norstrom blasted a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle over the glove of Joseph for his first goal of the season - and first in 77 games since last January while with Los Angeles.

"I would rather score when the team is winning," said Norstrom, who went 68 games in a Stars uniform without a tally. "It was a tough one because we let them hang around. You have to give them credit because they knew they were just one shot away from winning, and they got that one shot. We look at this game as a hiccup. We've been playing great hockey as of late."

The Flames opened the scoring on a power play as Tanguay tallied at 13:29 of the first period. Tanguay grabbed the rebound of defenseman Adrian Aucoin's slapper from the blue line and, from an almost impossible angle on the right side of the net, lifted an impressive backhander over a sliding Turco's glove to make it 1-0.

Dallas forged a tie just 16 seconds into the middle period on Niklas Hagman's 22nd goal. The Finn raced into the offensive zone and unleashed a wrist shot over Joseph's shoulder for his fourth goal in as many meetings with the Flames this season.