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Home | Sports | Minnesota Wild

Iginla, Flames ruin another trip to Saddledome

Jeff Mcintosh, Associated Press

Minnesota Wild's Derek Boogaard fought Calgary's Eric Godard Saturday in the first period.

The Wild continued to come up empty in Calgary, with captain Jarome Iginla again the primary reason.

By MICHAEL RUSSO, Star Tribune

Last update: March 24, 2008 - 1:14 AM

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CALGARY 5, WILD 4

Up next: 8:30 p.m. Monday at Edmonton • FSN

WILD COUNTDOWN

Six games left

40-27-9 record, third place in the West

• For the optimists: Next up a home-and-home with Edmonton, which the Wild is 17-5-1 against in its past 23.

• For the pessimists: Yeah, but the Oilers are three points from a playoff spot and have won 11 of 14.

More from Minnesota Wild

CALGARY, ALBERTA — Even more than leaving two meaningful points behind and seeing the Calgary Flames creep one point behind it in the tight Northwest Division playoff race, the Wild's 5-4 loss Saturday night carried greater weight.

Every game down the stretch against Calgary, Colorado and Vancouver is a potential first-round playoff preview, but the Wild has proven it can win in Denver and Vancouver.

Calgary has been another story, and so has Flames captain Jarome Iginla.

From a confidence standpoint, if the Wild returns to Calgary in a few weeks, it would have been nice if its most recent memory inside the dreaded Saddledome was a positive one.

Instead, immediately after Benoit Pouliot scored the second of his first two NHL goals, Iginla awoke, delivered his customary lethal blow and spoiled the rookie's grand evening.

The all-time leading scorer against the Wild (27 goals and 46 points), Iginla scored the tying goal with 22.8 seconds left in the second period. He scored the go-ahead goal 50 seconds into the third. And then he scored a third for good measure for his seventh career hat trick, and second against the Wild.

"If he would play by himself, he would score three goals," Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said of Iginla. "When he's around the net, he's dangerous. You've got to check him. He's in front of the net, and nobody makes an effort to go and check him.

"I guess they don't know he's got 48 goals."

Kim Johnsson made it a game with two third-period goals after not scoring since Dec. 29, but leave it to Iginla to send the Wild out of Calgary with its 13th loss in 14 visits. The Wild is 3-15-4 in Calgary all-time.

Calgary's 6-1 record against the Wild this season says clearly that it would not be a good first-round matchup for Minnesota.

It was the Wild's first regulation loss since March 6 (3-1-4) as the Flames improved to 6-0-2 in their past eight at home.

The tension was high mere minutes into this playoff-type contest, and then the fans got a show. Derek Boogaard and Eric Godard got into it in the first period, followed by Chris Simon and Jim Vandermeer only seconds later.

The scoreless first period was followed by a four-goal second. Phaneuf got it started with a coast-to-coast, shorthanded breakaway goal through a maze of Wild defenders.

The way Miikka Kiprusoff was playing, it was going to take a weird bounce to break him. Pouliot, 21, got that when his 2-on-1 feed to Brian Rolston deflected off Sarich's skate and behind Kiprusoff for Pouliot's first career goal.

Five minutes later, Bouchard set up Pouliot in slot. He took a wicked shot that rang out of the net so fast, the goal was waved off. But video replay gave Pouliot his second goal with 1:36 left in the second.

"I'd rather have the two points, especially against that team because they're chasing right behind us," Pouliot said. "But I'm happy about the goals."

But Iginla hadn't scored yet, and you knew he would. And he did -- three times.

"We have to put it behind us that we lost against Calgary, regardless of how our luck has been here," Rolston said. "It hasn't been stellar."

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