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CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Once again, Miikka Kiprusoff was unbeatable for the Calgary Flames.
Kiprusoff made 39 saves for his league-leading eighth shutout and the Flames beat the Dallas Stars 1-0 Thursday night.
Calgary has totaled just 14 goals in Kiprusoff's eight shutouts, including three 1-0 wins.
"He was unbelievable again, you can't say enough about him" said the Flames' Daymond Langkow, who provided the scoring with his 19th goal at 15:40 of the first period. "He came up huge time and time again and that's what we needed because they're a good offensive team with great speed up front and they're hard to contain."
Kiprusoff tied the Stars' Marty Turco for the league lead in wins with 32.
"Dallas is a pretty tough team to play against, there's a lot of skill there," Kiprusoff said. "But we did a good job. That's a good win for our confidence."
The Flames maintained their one-point lead over Colorado atop the Northwest Division. The Avalanche beat Chicago 2-1 Thursday.
Dallas had its three-game winning streak snapped and will wrap up a four-game road trip Saturday night at Vancouver.
Kiprusoff's toughest test came 4 minutes into the third period when Jordan Leopold took a double-minor for high-sticking while Calgary was already short-handed, giving Dallas a two-man advantage for 1:08.
Sergei Zubov, Brendan Morrow, and Mike Modano each had dangerous shots during that stretch but Kiprusoff was at his acrobatic best stopping each one - the last one from Modano coming on a sensational glove save.
"A 5-on-3 is pretty much the only time as a goalie that you really work hard, you really work your butt off," Kiprusoff said.
Dallas continued to attack on during the subsequent one-man advantage but couldn't get anything past Kiprusoff.
When Kiprusoff sprawled to smother Niko Kapanen's one-timer from the side of the net as Leopold's penalty expired, the sell-out crowd of 19,289 gave the Flames a standing ovation.
"We did exactly what we wanted to do, we got great looks at the net, we moved the puck around well, we had good point blank shots, we did everything but put it in," Modano said.
Calgary killed off all seven power plays, extending their streak to 37 straight the last six games.
Turco finished with 23 saves.
"No doubt Kiprusoff played great, but Marty played great also," Dallas defenseman Phillippe Boucher. "That's the way they play though, we knew exactly what was coming and we didn't do enough about it."
Playing without veteran defensemen Rhett Warrener (knee) and Roman Hamrlik (hand), the Flames struggled to contain the quick Dallas forwards and were outshot 15-5 in the first period.
They got the game's only goal when Tony Amonte worked the puck back to the blue line, and a high slap shot from rookie defenseman Dion Phaneuf deflected in off Langkow.
"Typical goal of mine, just going to the net," Langkow said. "I knew Dion was going to tee it up, I just tried to get in front of Turco and it hit me and went in."
Notes: Dallas' trade deadline acquisition, D Willie Mitchell, will join the Stars prior to their game Saturday night in Vancouver. .... Stars D Janne Niinimaa got back in the starting lineup after sitting out the last three games. ... Calgary LW Mike Leclerc has no goals in nine games since joining the Flames. ... The Stars had scored two or more goals in 27 consecutive games. ... Calgary D Cale Hulse replaced Warrener, who is out at least two weeks with an injured knee. The Flames expect Hamrlik back within a week.
Other games on March 9, 2006
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