Jarome Iginla ended his scoring drought against Detroit, and put the Red Wings in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time in almost two decades.
Iginla and Rene Bourque scored 1:31 apart in the third period as the Calgary Flames beat the Red Wings 4-2 Tuesday in a crucial Western Conference matchup.
The Flames moved into eighth place in the Western Conference and pushed Detroit to ninth.
“Obviously, you could tell how much was on the line,” Iginla said.
Iginla snapped his 19-game streak without a goal against the Red Wings to make it 2-2, scoring against them for the first time since March 3, 2004.
“It’s been a while,” he said. “It felt good.”
Since Iginla’s last goal versus Detroit, he scored enough against everybody else to rank fourth in the NHL in goals.
“He’s one of the premier scorers in the league,” Detroit’s Jason Williams said. “It’s tough to keep a guy like that off the scoreboard.”
If Detroit doesn’t, a remarkable run might end. The Red Wings have been in 18 straight post-seasons, the longest streak in sports.
“We got outshot 15-4 at home in the third period in a game that desperation on both sides should show,” Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. “We were playing against a team that wants to get in the playoffs. We need to show that we want to be in, as well.”
Elsewhere in the NHL it was: Montreal 5 Tampa Bay 3; Toronto 4 Boston 3 (OT); Vancouver 6 Colorado 4; Ottawa 4 Edmonton 1; Philadelphia 3 New York Islanders 2; Florida 3 Minnesota 2 (SO); Nashville 2 Atlanta 1; and Columbus 5 Anaheim 2.
At Detroit, Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff made 28 saves to help the Flames win their third straight.
Babcock said Jimmy Howard, who also stopped 28 shots, gave the Red Wings a chance to win.
But Babcock blamed his team for failing to clear the puck from its end when Calgary scored the tying and go-ahead goals in the third. Detroit ruined a chance to win a third straight game and fourth out of five since the Olympic break.
Inconsistency more than injuries has become the biggest problem for the Red Wings, 8-8-6 the last two months.
“We play one, then not the next one,” Babcock said. “We need to put a string together.”
Following a slow start, Detroit bounced back to take control of the game.
Calgary’s Daymond Langkow scored 5:18 into the second after a scoreless first.
Pavel Datsyuk scored midway through the period to tie it, and Tomas Holmstrom had a power-play goal late in the period to put Detroit ahead.
After Iginla ended his drought against Detroit, Bourque scored the winner 7:16 into the third.
The Red Wings had a power play shortly after falling behind, but couldn’t take advantage, then got called for two penalties.
Calgary gave them hope when Ian White was called for tripping with 2:45 left in the game to set up a 4-on-4 situation and a power play that lasted just less than a minute.
Howard was pulled, giving Detroit a two-man skating advantage, but it didn’t do much with the opportunity and gave up an empty-net goal to Christopher Higgins with 45 seconds left.
“The team that worked the hardest won the game,” Babcock said.
The Flames moved into eighth place in the West with 75 points – and 16 games left in the regular season. They are one point ahead of the two-time defending conference champions.
“Every game is such a big game and we have to treat each one like a playoff game,” Calgary coach Brent Suter said.
Canadiens 5 Lightning 3
At Montreal, Scott Gomez had a goal and two assists, and Mathieu Darche scored twice to lift the Canadiens to a victory against Tampa Bay.
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Maple Leafs 4 Bruins 3 (OT)
At Toronto, Nikolai Kulemin scored 4:11 into overtime to lift the Maple Leafs over Boston.
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Canucks 6 Avalanche 4
At Denver, Jannik Hansen scored the decisive goal with 2:08 remaining, Mikael Samuelsson had his first NHL hat trick, and Vancouver rallied to beat Colorado.
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Senators 4 Oilers 1
At Edmonton, Chris Kelly had a goal and an assist, and Matt Cullen, Milan Michalek and Mike Fisher also scored for Ottawa, which snapped a three-game losing streak by beating the Oilers.
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Flyers 3 Islanders 2
At Philadelphia, Simon Gagne’s power-play goal broke a third-period tie as the Flyers rallied for their franchise-record 15th straight victory over the Islanders.
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Panthers 3 Wild 2 (SO)
At St. Paul, Minn., Cory Stillman scored the winning shootout goal and Florida held Minnesota to a franchise-tying low 11 shots.
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Predators 2 Thrashers 1
At Atlanta, Colin Wilson scored off an Atlanta miscue and Dan Ellis turned aside 30 shots, leading Nashville past the slumping Thrashers.
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Blue Jackets 5 Ducks 2
At Anaheim, Calif., Jakub Voracek scored during Columbus’ first power play and set up another second-period goal by Fedor Tyutin to lead the Blue Jackets over the Ducks.
