Flames goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff makes one of his 18 saves against Colorado on Thursday. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)Plagued by inconsistency, the Calgary Flames discovered the perfect tonic for their recent slump: consecutive games against the Colorado Avalanche.
Daymond Langkow's goal midway through the second period Thursday night was all the offence the Flames needed, as Calgary beat the Avalanche 1-0 to sweep the home-and-home series between the Northwest Division rivals.
Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff made 18 saves to earn his second shutout of the season and 28th of his career.
"We played a pretty bad game against San Jose [a 6-1 loss on Nov. 13] and we knew we had to do something different," said Kiprusoff. "It's been a good couple of games."
Calgary, who skated to a 4-1 home win over the Avs on Tuesday night, had not won consecutive games since rattling off six in a row from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1. Thursday's win also snapped Calgary's four-game losing skid on the road.
Defence has been a problem of late for the Flames, who gave up a whopping 32 goals in their last eight contests and had not held an opponent to less than two goals since beating Colorado 3-0 at home on Oct. 28.
The Flames have beaten Colorado in all four meetings this season, including the first three games in Calgary.
"It's been a while since I've seen a team beat our team four times in one year," Colorado forward Ian Laperriere said. "We'll see them two more times."
Kiprusoff kept the game scoreless with two great saves on Marek Svatos and Ryan Smyth after the Avalanche killed off three minor penalties.
"We had two bad changes early in the game and he had to make two great saves," Flames coach Mike Keenan said. "You look at the shots against, and we try to keep it down, but the goalie still has to come up with a couple of very important saves if you want to come away with a shutout."
After a goal-less first period, Langkow broke the deadlock midway through the second frame, beating Colorado goalie Peter Budaj on a one-timer off a Mark Giordano rebound for his fifth goal of the season.
Flames captain Jarome Iginla collected his 400th career assist on the goal.
"That's a simple play," Langkow said. "Gio made a nice move there and came down and put a pretty hard shot on net and I jumped on the rebound."
The third period went by in a flash as the teams played for nearly 10 minutes without a stoppage in play.
Colorado pressed in the final minute of regulation after they pulled Budaj to get an extra skater on the ice, but a goalmouth scramble in front of Kiprusoff proved fruitless and the Flames held on for the win.
"You have to be a little lucky on some of those," said Kiprusoff.
Calgary has just two victories in its last eight visits to Denver and is 4-8-1 since the start of the 2005-06 season.
Avalanche captain Joe Sakic missed his fourth straight game and fifth in the last six with a back injury.
Next up for the Flames is a home game against the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 10 p.m. ET).
With files from Associated Press
