Flames finish 3-0 homestand with victory over Rangers

New York has proven pretty good at using the late rally to pull out victories lately, but not this time.

Making their first visit to Calgary since 2002, the Rangers had to settle for a quick view of the local sites out of their hotel room windows as the Flames held on for a 4-3 victory on Wednesday night.

Jarome Iginla scored twice for the victors and Kristian Huselius potted the eventual winner off a ridiculous angle, but even when the Flames went up 4-2 with just over two minutes to go, New York didn't toss it in.

With Henrik Lundqvist on the bench, the Rangers drew to within a goal when Brendan Shanahan put one by Miikka Kiprusoff to make it 4-3 with 14 seconds still on the clock. New York hustled back in again, but Calgary's defence finally shut things down for good.

The Flames are now 20-14-7 and finished the current homestand 3-0. Rangers are 20-16-4, breaking off a three-game winning streak.

Calgary led 2-1 into the third period but offences still had some work to do.

Iginla gave his club a two-goal cushion at 6:51 on a play that might have drawn a red penalty flag if this had been football. Huselius broke through the Rangers defence and, despite a nice ankle tackle by Marc Staal, got the puck up to his captain who potted his 29th on the season.

It stayed that way until the 15:53 mark when Brandon Dubinsky played give-and-go with Sean Avery behind the Flames' net before popping out the left side and finding some open net for his fourth. That brought New York within a goal.

But about two minutes later, Huselius poked the puck away from the Rangers at his own blue line and chased after it, finally corralling it deep in New York's zone. Instead of circling the goal, he sent one at the net from about six inches in front of the goal line and 15 feet away that found Lundqvist already cheating to his right in anticipation of an around the world trip.

The puck went between the goalie's right shoulder and the post for a 4-2 lead.

Calgary starts quickly

Adrian Aucoin opened the scoring just 1:39 in on a play that proved a goaltender has a better chance of stopping the puck if he actually sees it.

With the puck cycling back to the point, Henrik Lundqvist looked left around one of his defenders and saw nothing. He then looked right around the same defender and saw nothing; noticing the puck only as it zipped through his legs off Aucoin's stick.

Calgary buzzed around the Ranger net for much of the period, but Lundqvist stood tall, especially after a great open-ice by Flames' defenceman Dion Phaneuf led to a couple of open tries in front with just seconds left on the clock.

Iginla comes right back

In the second period, New York's Chris Drury saved a goal when Iginla dribbled one towards the net past a sprawling Lundqvist only to have the Blue Shirts' forward reach over and pin the puck against the left post for a moment before it squirted back out.

Undaunted, a few minutes later the Flames went on a power play and Iginla got another chance.

As the Flames rotated the puck sharply in the Rangers zone, Phaneuf from the corner found Iginla in the right circle where the captain fought off the check of Marcel Hossa and wrested one by Lundqvist for his 28th of the season, and 11th with the extra man.

Rangers got on the board late in the second after some nice passing by Jaromir Jagr and Scott Gomez sent the puck back to Michal Rozsival at the point. His shot arrived at an inconvenient time — Phaneuf was busy getting in his goalie's way — and it bounced off the all-star and past Kiprusoff into the net to make it 2-1.

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