The Calgary Flames extended their winning streak to six games with a 3-2 win over the Vancouver Canucks Saturday night at General Motors Place.

The win maintains Calgary's seven point lead over the Colorado Avalanche for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

Calgary Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff keeps his eye on the puck as teammate Robyn Regehr (28) checks Canucks forward Henrik Sedin Saturday night at General Motors Place in Vancouver.
(Sam Lung/Canadian Press)

The Avalanche kept pace by beating the Minnesota Wild 2-1 on Saturday night.

Daymond Langkow led visiting Calgary's offensive attack with a goal and two assists and goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 32 Vancouver shots.

The division-leading Canucks have clinched a playoff spot, but only hold a slim three-point lead over the Minnesota Wild in the Northwest Division with just five games remaining.

That three-point difference is what separates the third seed, which gets home-ice advantage for round one of the playoffs, and the seventh seed, which results in starting the post-season on the road against a top team.

Flames strike first

The Flames took a 1-0 lead at 4:07 of the first period on a clever passing play between Kristian Huselius and Langkow.

Huselius slid the puck down low to Langkow, who buried a one-timer to the short side of Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo.

Calgary increased its advantage by two goals just 1:31 into the second period with a short-handed marker. Langkow broke into the Vancouver end on a 2-on-1 and held on to the puck before feeding Craig Conroy with a perfect pass. Conroy made no mistake in converting the scoring chance into the open net.

The Flames resumed their dominance of the Canucks more than two minutes later on Huselius's 33rd goal of the season off a rebound that beat Luongo.

But the Canucks refused to give up, outshooting Calgary 18-3 in the final period.

Vancouver took advantage of a Flames' turnover for its first goal at 6:37. Matt Cooke controlled the puck behind the net before sending a pass to Brendan Morrison, who snapped a shot behind Kiprusoff.

The Canucks then reduced Calgary's lead to 3-2 with a power-play goal less than 10 minutes later.

With the puck lying in the Flames' crease, Markus Naslund appeared to push the puck into the net with his glove.

However, the goal was reviewed and upheld to set up a frantic finish. Vancouver pulled Luongo from the game with 1:23 remaining and peppered Kiprusoff with several shots.

The Flames netminder was more than up to the challenge, snuffing out a last ditch effort by the Canucks after he robbed Daniel Sedin from the slot with only 8.6 seconds remaining in the game.

It was Kiprusoff who clearly won the marquee battle of the goaltenders against MVP candidate Roberto Luongo, preserving the win when his teammates came out flat in the third period.