Flames burn Wings, Kiprusoff leaves with injury

The Calgary Flames got a win but may have lost their goaltender.

Playing just their second road game of the season, the Flames handled the Detroit Red Wings 4-1 on Tuesday night at Joe Louis Arena with the help of Jarome Iginla's first goal of the season.

The Flames opened the season with five of their first six games at home but won just one while starting 1-3-2. However, they may be going forward with goalie Miikka Kiprusoff, who suffered a lower-body injury near the end of the second period when he and Detroit's Johan Franzen collided near the net. Kiprusoff played the first two periods before Leland Irving took over in the third, stopping all six shots he faced.

"He's going to be re-evaluated [Wednesday]. I can't tell you any more," Flames coach Bob Hartley said.

Losing Kiprusoff would be a body blow to an already-struggling team. Kiprusoff has played in 70 or more games in each of the last seven seasons.

"You take for granted how good he is and how consistent he is," Iginla said. "He's a big part of our team."

The Flames played perhaps their best game of the season in a 3-2 shootout loss to Calgary on Saturday

"We kind of carried over from our last game and did some of the same things," Iginla said. "Our power play was good tonight and our penalty kill was good."

The Flames took a 2-0 first-period lead on Iginla's first of the season at 3:24 and Curtis Glencross' fourth at 10:35. Calgary built a 3-1 edge with 24 seconds left in the second on a 5-on-3 goal by Dennis Wideman.

Iginla was stopped by Jimmy Howard on a penalty shot prior to Wideman's goal.

Mark Giordano's power-play goal with 4:02 remaining in the third finished the scoring.

"We talked about how we've done so many good things and we didn't have anything to show for it," Hartley said. "We said if that was the way our team was going to play, we were going to get rewarded."

Johan Franzen had a power-play goal for Detroit at 12:37 of the second period, but the Red Wings dropped their second straight for the first time after winning two in a row for the first time.

"I thought we did some good things tonight, but we made some mistakes and they shot in our net without any question about it, so we're chasing the game," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

Iginla had four assists prior to Tuesday. It was his longest goal-less drought to start a season since he scored in the 12th game of the 1999-2000 season, his third in the League. The Flames' all-time leading scorer has scored at least 30 goals for 11 straight seasons.

"Always the first of the year, it's nice to get over," Iginla said. "Every single year, you want to get that first one off your back."

Calgary, the last-place team in the Western Conference, is on a three-game road trip that includes visits to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday and the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday.

Flames forward Jiri Hudler was playing for the first time against Detroit, where he spent the first seven seasons of his NHL career. He signed with Calgary as a free agent this offseason.

Material from wire services and team media was used in this report