News

It was a memorable offensive night for a number of Calgary Flames: Jarome Iginla established a franchise record for goal-scoring; Kristian Huselius snapped an ugly 20-game scoring slump; and Matthew Lombardi also broke out of a prolonged drought, scoring for only the second time in 31 games.

In the end, though, what mattered most were the two points the Flames earned from Monday's easy 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Blues, which vaulted them past the Minnesota Wild into first place in the NHL's tightly contested Northwest Division.

The win ended a five-game home-stand for the Flames in which they'd earned six of a possible eight points in the previous four games, even though they'd only scored five goals in that span. To describe their offence as popgun of late would qualify as an understatement.

The fact that they broke out for three first-period goals on 11 shots — and seven in all - was perhaps the most heartening development of all.

"We're getting opportunities, we're so close, once the floodgates open, we're going to score a bunch of goals," predicted centre Craig Conroy, at the morning skate — and he was right.

Officially, the 365th goal of Iginla's career (in his 847th game with the Flames) came with 1:33 to go in the opening period and the Blues' Ryan Johnson in the penalty box, serving a questionable tripping call. On the play, Iginla took a pass from Huselius and tried a one-timer from the left face-off circle. Iginla — using a new curve on his old Easton stick — didn't quite catch the puck exactly right, but it deflected in off the back-end of Blues defenceman Eric Brewer.

"Actually, when I first shot it, I wasn't sure I got it," said Iginla. "It went off their guy and in but I wasn't sure if it was Lanks (Daymond Langkow) in front of the net or not. I had a big celebration planned — windmills and everything — but I wasn't sure so I just decided to keep it in the bag.

"It was a good break, a nice one-timed pass from Juice (Huselius) and it went off their guy's backside. I'll take them all for sure."

Iginla called the milestone, "something that's hard to believe. I've been so blessed and I've had so much fun, but I want to keep going. I'll remember tonight and it was really nice that it happened on a night when the team played really well."

Iginla broke Theo Fleury's record with his 41st of the season, but he'd cooled off lately after a torrid stretch in December and early January. That was nothing, however, compared to the scoring struggles of his usual linemate, Huselius, who hit the 20-goal mark in early January and had been stuck at 21 for the better part of two months.

Or Lombardi's woes, for that matter. A 20-goal scorer last year, Lombardi had nine goals in his first 38 games and then just one in his next 30, before converting a second-period shorthanded chance against Hannu Toivonen, the Blues' back-up goaltender, who came on to replace starter Manny Legace three minutes into the second period.

Lombardi went to his backhand and almost appeared to lose the puck off his stick as he made his move, but it slid in anyway, just inside the post.

According to coach Mike Keenan, it was only a matter of time before Huselius finally ended his drought — and he figured that with his streaky scoring nature, this could be the start of a nice turnaround.

Calgary may need that with nine of its final 13 games on the road.

Alex Tanguay, with two, including a shorthanded empty-netter, Langkow and Marcus Nilson accounted for the balance of Calgary's scoring.

Former Leaf first-rounder Brad Boyes led the Blues with two goals, his 35th and 36th of the season, while David Backes had the other.

"I dreamed of being a goal-scorer," said Iginla. "I'm fortunate — I've been in those situations and good things have happened. But as I get older — I'm 30 years old and I can't believe how fast things have gone — it's really cool to set the goal-scoring mark, but I want to win a Stanley Cup. Looking back, I want to be part of the second team that brought a Stanley Cup to Calgary. People still tell stories about '89. I want to be part of that."

The Blues played without Keith Tkachuk, their second-leading goal-scorer, who re-injured his left shoulder in a collision with teammate Jay McKee in Saturday's loss to the Vancouver Canucks. Tkachuk has had problems with his shoulder ever since injuring it originally in a fight with the Flames' Dion Phaneuf in a mid-December game in St. Louis.

The Blues, who were fifth in the Western Conference after 41 games, have slipped to 14th place now and have effectively fallen out of the playoff race.

"To me, you come to play 82 games, so no matter if you're in or out, we're not going to back off at all," said Blues' coach Andy Murray, who pulled his goalie with about five minutes remaining and his team down three goals in an effort to get back in the game. "We're going to keep pushing and trying to get our players to play to the best of their abilities every single game.

"To me, you play for your jobs and you play for your team and you play for two points every night and that's what we've been trying to do here."