Jarome Iginla seems to have found the linemates that could soon help him take over top spot in the National Hockey League scoring race.
The Calgary Flames captain combined with Kristian Huselius and Daymond Langkow for five goals and 12 points in a 5-3 victory over the Blues in St. Louis on Sunday night.
Flames' Jarome Iginla, left, fights for a loose puck with St. Louis' Keith Tkachuk.
(Bill Boyce/Associated Press)
"They've got a lot of confidence," Mike Keenan said of his top unit, which carried Calgary to its fifth straight win. "It's obvious when they're scoring goals, they've all got a lot of offensive jump, moving the puck well. Once you gain that confidence you can really perpetuate your offence and continue to get results and that's what they have been able to do."
Iginla collected four points to give him 48 on the season, three back of current leader Vincent Lecavalier, whose Tampa Bay Lightning didn't play Sunday.
Langkow had two goals and an assist, while Huselius added a goal and four assists in a strong bid to remain on Calgary's first line after taking over the left-wing spot from Alex Tanguay recently.
Iginla's third period power play goal at 7:55 proved to be the difference. It was his team-leading 23rd goal of the season.
"We want to keep our streak rolling, and it was a tough game," Iginla said. "It was a game that for a bit there was going back and forth as far as momentum."
The Flames were a decisive 2-for-4 on the power play, while the Blues failed to execute on all three of their opportunities in the game.
"Our power play was timely and our penalty killing was solid," said Keenan. "It was very good, and that was the difference in the game for us tonight."
Andy McDonald scored a goal and added an assist in his St. Louis debut, but it wasn't enough as the Blues have dropped four in a row, going 0-3-1.
"There's a good group here," said McDonald, who was acquired earlier in the week from Anaheim in exchange for Doug Weight. "Things didn't go well tonight, but I was really impressed."
Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 14 of 17 shots to earn the victory, his 16th of the season and one off the NHL lead of San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov.
After Huselius scored his 14th goal of the season in the first minute of the second period, the Blues would score twice in 79 seconds, with Brad Boyes and Lee Stempniak giving the Blues a 3-2 lead. Boyes' goal was his team-leading 19th, while Stempniak would net his sixth in 10 career games against Calgary.
Iginla put Calgary up 1-0 at 12:05 of the first period on the power play when he tapped in Langkow's pass from just inside the crease.
McDonald would tie the game at 14:28 with his fifth of the season when he converted Bryce Salvador's pass from just inside the right circle, beating Kiprusoff with a wrist shot.
The win was also the 600th of Mike Keenan's NHL coaching career.
The Bowmanville, Ont., native is sixth all time in NHL wins behind only Scotty Bowman (1,244), Al Arbour (781), Dick Irvin (692), Pat Quinn (657) and Bryan Murray (607).
Only Bowman and Arbour reached 600 coaching victories at a younger age than the 58-year-old Keenan, who is coaching in his 19th NHL season.
The Flames, who have scored 22 goals during their winning streak, wrap up a six-game road trip in Columbus on Tuesday.
With files from the Associated PressRelated
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