Matthew Lombardi used his speed to kill a Vancouver power play and set up a goal, while his faceoff prowess preserved a fourth consecutive win for the Calgary Flames.

With the Canucks up a man in the final minute of regulation Saturday night, the third-year centre won a draw deep in the Calgary zone to key a 3-2 victory in the first of eight meetings between the Western Conference rivals.

Kristian Huselius, right, celebrates his game-winning goal.
(Chuck Stoody/Canadian Press)

With their third road win, the visiting Flames improved to 7-7-2 on the season and moved to within a point of third-place Vancouver in the Northwest Division.

With the game tied 2-2, Lombardi set up the winning goal in the third period on a rush down the wing.

His drop pass deflected off an opponent's skate and was picked up by Kristian Huselius, whose backhander ricocheted off Canucks defenceman Kevin Bieksa's stick and beat goaltender Roberto Luongo under the crossbar with three minutes, 32 seconds left on the clock.

Defensively, Lombardi helped prevent Vancouver from building on a 2-1 advantage with some hustle on the penalty-kill.

Rhett Warrener and Jarome Iginla, who has 11 points in the last eight games, also scored for Calgary.

Salo, Pyatt goals give Canucks early lead

Vancouver took a 2-0 lead in the first period on power-play goals by Sami Salo and Taylor Pyatt.

But Flames netminder Miikka Kiprusoff, coming off a 37-save shutout against Anaheim on Friday, stood tall to give his teammates a chance to get back in the game.

Calgary appeared headed to its seventh loss of the season as Vancouver employed a strong forecheck and outskated the Flames, who struggled to get a shot on goal during back-to-back man-advantages midway through the second period.

But Canucks forward Matt Cooke delivered a thunderous bodycheck against Iginla that woke the Calgary captain after he had unleashed a hard shot from the top of the faceoff circle.

"He [Cooke] got me good," Iginla told Scott Oake of Hockey Night in Canada after the game. "It was a good, clean hit. It ticked me off, but anybody gets mad when they get hit that hard."

Iginla puts Flames on the board

After taking a pass from Alex Tanguay at centre ice, Iginla split a pair of Vancouver blue-liners, drove the net and slid the puck under Luongo, who was bowled over on the play.

"I was just going to the net. Fortunately, it slid under [Luongo]," Iginla said. "I wasn't trying to run the goalie by any means. [I was] sure happy to see that [puck] go [in the net]."

Kiprusoff got a bit of a break when Marc Chouinard hit the inside of the post less than a minute before Iginla put Calgary on the board.

Warrener made it 2-2 at 5:29 of the third period with his first goal of the season. The Flames defenceman wired a shot by Luongo after Tanguay fed him a pass through the legs of a Canucks player.
 
"We had a lot of chances to get the third one and instead they ended up tying it," said Canucks captain Markus Naslund, who had four shots on goal and no less than seven scoring chances.

Flames slow start like last year: Iginla

Iginla said the 2006-07 Flames are very similar to last year's group that started the season with a 4-7-2 mark before stepping up its game in November.

'It kind of took us a while to find what style of game we were trying to play.… Right now, especially in the last five games, we're feeling better, we're skating better, [applying] more pressure and being aggressive.'-Calgary's Jarome Iginla

"We had a really slow start last year," he said. "It kind of took us a while to find what style of game we were trying to play [in the more offence-oriented NHL]. Right now, especially in the last five games, we're feeling better, we're skating better, [applying] more pressure and being aggressive.

"It's not just about big hits, but we've got to be a pressure team and that's what we're trying."

A Vancouver power play that began the night ranked 26th in the 30-team NHL and mired in a 2-for-26 slide received a boost with the return of Salo, who missed three games with a sprained knee.

He one-timed a slapshot from the point that deflected off several Calgary sticks on the way past Kiprusoff midway through the first period.

Pyatt, who scored six goals in 41 games with Buffalo last season, added his team-high eighth goal with 68 seconds left in the period.

The Canucks (8-9-1) have lost five of their last six games and are 1-5-1 against division opponents this season.

Both teams return to the ice Tuesday, with Calgary hosting the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver welcoming Detroit to General Motors Place.

With files from the Canadian Press