Iginla nets winner as Flames beat Coyotes 4-1

[March 16, 2012]  CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- Jarome Iginla scored the winner in the second period, giving him a goal in six straight games, and the Calgary Flames beat the Phoenix Coyotes 4-1 on Thursday night.

Iginla has eight goals and six assists during an eight-game points streak.

Sven Baertschi, Matt Stajan and Alex Tanguay also scored for the Flames (34-25-12), who have win five straight to pull within one point of the seventh-place Coyotes (35-26-11) and eighth-place Colorado (38-30-5) in the Western Conference.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored for the Coyotes, who were coming off a 5-4 win in Vancouver a night earlier.

Miikka Kiprusoff made 27 saves for his 33rd win of the season.

Mike Smith stopped 15 shots for Phoenix.

Baertschi, who joined the Flames on March 7 on a recall from the WHL, has scored goals in three straight games.

Stajan, elevated to the top line with Iginla and Alex Tanguay during Calgary's recent rash of injuries, has scored three times in four games and has points (three goals, three assists) in five straight.

Baertschi scored to give the Flames an early 1-0 lead. Forechecking hard in the Phoenix zone, Baertschi intercepted an errant pass in front of the net by Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle and quickly backhanded a shot over Smith's glove.

Later in the opening frame, Smith made a nice glove save to stop a slap shot off the stick of Blake Comeau before sliding across his crease to get in front of a heavy shot from the point by Calgary defenseman Anton Babchuk.

At the other end of the ice, Kiprusoff turned aside a slap shot by Ray Whitney before stretching across his crease to deny Ekman-Larsson from knocking in the rebound.

Iginla put the Flames up 2-0 just past the 5-minute mark of the second when he took a long stretch pass from Mark Giordano and skated into the Phoenix zone before snapping a shot to the top corner past Smith.

Ekman-Larsson pulled the Coyotes within a goal with 2:23 left in the middle frame when he took a pass from Whitney and roofed a shot over a sprawling Kiprusoff.

Just 33 seconds later, Stajan put the Flames back up by a pair when he drove hard to the net and redirected a pass from Cory Sarich across the goal-line.

One minute into the third period, Kiprusoff made a save to thwart Whitney on a breakaway attempt, then stopped a long shot from the NHL veteran a short time later.

The Coyotes recorded the first 13 shots on net in the final period before Jokinen finally directed a puck past Smith with just under 8 minutes to go while the Flames were on a power play.

The Flames then added an insurance goal when Curtis Glencross made some nice moves in the offensive zone to set up Tanguay for a short-handed goal.

NOTES: Calgary D Jay Bouwmeester played in his 577th straight game to move into sole possession of seventh on the NHL's all-time ironman list. ... Meanwhile, Yandle played in his 244th straight game and is second behind Bouwmeester among defenseman on the active consecutive games played list. ... Phoenix coach Dave Tippett is one win away from his 400th head coaching victory.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.