Behind captain Jarome Iginla, the Calgary Flames continue to build momentum for their postseason run.
Iginla and the surging Flames hope to improve their playoff positioning, while extending the Colorado Avalanche’s recent struggles as the teams close out their season series on Monday - their second meeting in five days.
Calgary (39-26-10) has won three of its last four games, and seeks to win three straight for the first time since a four-game run from Feb. 19-26.
Iginla recorded his seventh career hat trick - second this season - in Calgary’s 5-4 home victory over Northwest Division-leading Minnesota on Saturday.
Iginla, who leads the Flames with 48 goals and is third in the NHL with 91 points, has eight goals and four assists in his last seven contests.
“It seems like everything that’s touching Iggy’s stick right now is going in, so I was trying to keep passing to him,” said Alex Tanguay, who set up Iginla’s second tally of the game.
Miikka Kiprusoff made 29 saves for Calgary, which looks to make its fourth straight playoff appearance.
“A high-scoring game like that is a little out of the ordinary, but at this time of year, any style of game, you have to win it,” Iginla said. “These are playoff-style games. We want to keep rolling and feeding off of these games, they’re big momentum boosts.”
Calgary is sixth in the Western Conference and second in the tightly packed Northwest, one point behind Minnesota and four ahead of Colorado (39-31-6), which is clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot in the West.
The Flames are 3-1-3 against Colorado, and posted a 2-1 home victory on Thursday.
Iginla provided an assist in that win, giving him four goals and four assists versus the Avalanche. In 64 all-time meetings, he has 23 goals and 56 points - his most against any team.
Calgary is 3-7-1 at the Pepsi Center since the start of 2005-06, but won 5-2 on Nov. 24 in its most recent trip. It hasn’t won consecutive games in Colorado since Feb. 24-March 7, 2004.
The Flames play five of their last seven games on the road, where they have lost three of their last four.
Colorado concluded its road trip with three straight losses, including a 7-5 defeat at Edmonton on Saturday.
Milan Hejduk, Joe Sakic and Paul Stastny each had multipoint games for the Avalanche, who have lost four straight overall for their longest skid since going 0-4-1 from Feb. 12-20.
“We’d certainly have liked to have grabbed something out of this one,” Avs coach Joel Quenneville said. “It was a tough trip, but we still control where we’re heading and it’s up to us to pick it up. We lost three tough games, all one-goal games.
“We have to find a way to get some momentum at home.”
The Avalanche have won five of six at the Pepsi Center, where they are 23-12-2. Only Detroit (26) and Anaheim (25) have more home wins.
Stastny, who leads the Avs with 42 assists and 64 points, missed Thursday’s game against the Flames because of the flu, but has three goals and nine assists in his last 10 appearances.
He has three goals and five assists in six games this season versus Calgary, and 11 tallies and 20 points in 14 lifetime.
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Notes
Calgary was 1-for-1 on the power play. ... The Flames scored three goals in the first 9:16 of the second period. ... C Olli Jokinen recorded a game-high six shots on goal.
Apr 23, 1:08 am EDT
Colorado finished 32-45-5 this season. The Avalanche posted 69 points - 10 behind the Los Angeles Kings and Phoenix Coyotes. They finished last in the Western Conference for the first time since moving to Denver in 1995. ... Colorado had never finished with fewer than 95 points since its franchise moved to Denver. ... Colorado prospects Colby Cohen and Kevin Shattenkirk played vital roles in helping Boston University win the NCAA national championship on Saturday.
Apr 12, 9:36 pm EDT