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Kiprusoff, Flames win fifth straight, continue mastery of Blues

Nov 15, 2006 - 5:19 AM CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Miikka Kiprusoff and the Calgary Flames wish they could play the St. Louis Blues more often.

Kiprusoff recorded 23 saves for his 20th career shutout to lift the Flames to a 3-0 victory over the Blues for their fifth consecutive victory.

Daymond Langkow, Kristian Huselius and Andrew Ference scored for the Flames, who have won seven of their last eight against the Blues.

Kiprusoff's third shutout of the season tied him with Detroit's Dominik Hasek and New Jersey's Martin Brodeur for the NHL lead in shutouts.

"They (Calgary's defense) played well tonight, there was not too many chances," Kiprusoff said. "It was a pretty easy game for me to play. We didn't give them too much tonight. Most of the shots were from the outside, I saw most of the pucks, so it was a good game to play."

Calgary took a 1-0 lead at 3:02 of the first period when Langkow skated in and redirected a pass from Alex Tanguay past St. Louis goaltender Curtis Sanford to complete a three-way passing play with Jarome Iginla.

The Flames had a goal disallowed at 13:34 of the first period when Sanford gloved Tanguay's shot, but the momentum of the blast seemingly carried Sanford's glove and the puck over the goal line. The referees consulted the video replay officials, who waved off the goal.

Sanford, who stopped 3-of-4 shots, left the game with a pulled groin muscle while the goal was being reviewed and was replaced by Manny Legace.

"I'm used to it, I did it for five years in Detroit," said Legace about coming in the game without a warmup. "I'm one of those guys who doesn't have to stretch to warm up, I can jump right into practice or jump into a game. It's the same as if I'd been in there the whole game."

Huselius gave the Flames a 2-0 lead in the third period with a shorthanded goal. He picked up a loose puck at center ice, skated in and snapped the puck over Legace's glove at 1:41. The left wing scored the game-winner in Calgary's 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Ference capped the scoring when he took a pass from Tanguay in the slot and beat Legace at 10:34.

St. Louis center Keith Tkachuk, who had a seven-game point streak halted, was not happy with the Blues' performance.

"We were outmuscled, and that can't happen at this point," he said. "They played good, and we just sat around and watched them. That's fine when we don't get scoring chances, but when we as a team don't respond to them taking it to us physically, that's something you can't have."

Tanguay had two assists for the third straight game.

"It took me awhile to get going here," Tanguay said. "Hopefully now I'm playing better, and hopefully I can keep helping the team."

The Flames go for their sixth straight victory on Friday, when they host the Detroit Red Wings, who have won nine straight.

"We dug ourselves a hole early in the season and now we're starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel," Tanguay said. "We're still a long way from where we want to be. This team is expected to contend, but we're playing better, and hopefully we can keep playing better and better as the season goes on."