Canucks goaltender Roberto Luongo continually stoned the Calgary Flames' shooters Tuesday night at GM Place. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

The Vancouver Canucks can thank Roberto Luongo for keeping them in the Northwest Division race.

The magnificent Luongo stopped 46 shots while guiding the Canucks to a critical 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night at GM Place in Vancouver.

The win puts the Canucks (43-27-10) into a first-place tie in the division with Calgary (45-29-6) with 96 points. Two games remain for both teams in a race that may not be decided until the final weekend of the season.

A division title isn't the only thing on the line for the Northwest rivals.

The victor will emerge with the third seed in the NHL West and home-ice advantage in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The runner-up would likely start on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks, who hold the fourth seed with 99 points and a game in hand.

The Flames will finish the campaign with a home-and-home series against the Edmonton Oilers.

Vancouver, meanwhile, hosts the lowly Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night and concludes with a road contest against the last-place Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

Defenceman Mathias Ohlund scored two goals to lead Vancouver's offence, with Rick Rypien and Henrik Sedin adding a goal apiece. The Canucks also snapped a three-game losing streak.

"We'd rather take two points and play bad than the opposite, but we didn't play great," said Ohlund. "They totally outplayed us and Louie stole the game."

Calgary captain Jarome Iginla notched his 35th goal of the season. Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff allowed four goals on 25 shots.

Flames try everything

Calgary needed only a regulation win to clinch the division title on Tuesday night, but Luongo made sure that didn't happen.

"We wanted to finish it off tonight, said Calgary coach Mike Keenan. "Luongo obviously thought differently. Luongo was the difference. We had a number of chances to get involved in the game offensively and he just stymied us. He was putting on a goaltending clinic tonight.

The Flames threw everything at Luongo — outshooting the Canucks 47-25 — but Vancouver's franchise player denied Calgary at almost ever turn.

"If we play like that, we'll win a lot of games," said Iginla.

It didn't take long for Luongo to see action as he made point-blank stops on Mike Cammalleri and Todd Bertuzzi in the opening minute.

"Once I make those saves early, I get in a comfort zone and they kept throwing pucks at the net from everywhere, and for me personally that's the kind of game I like," said Luongo.

Feeding off Luongo's brilliance, the Canucks took a 1-0 lead with less than three minutes remaining in the first. Rypien had his stick lifted by Iginla but recovered to snap a shot by Kiprusoff.

Luongo continued to shine in the second, robbing Jamie Lundmark and James Vandermeer on consecutive gloves saves three minutes apart.

Calgary finally got to Luongo at 14:44 when Iginla controlled an Olli Jokinen pass with his skate before slipping the puck by the Vancouver goalie.

While the Flames needed more than half the game to pull even with Vancouver, it only took them 22 seconds to fall behind again.

With Calgary running around in its own end, Ohlund was able to fire a slapshot off the stick of Flames defenceman Dion Phaneuf and over Kiprusoff.

Calgary power play fails again

Luongo was up to his old tricks early in the third, helping the Canucks kill a five-on-three penalty with a great glove save on Iginla, who was well positioned from the slot.

Jokinen then hit the post on yet another failed Calgary power play near the halfway point of the third. On the same man-advantage, Iginla was denied yet again as his breakaway attempt went wide.

Ohlund and Sedin sealed the victory for Vancouver with two goals late in the third.

The Flames' anemic power play continued to falter, and is now scoreless on 37 consecutive chances following the 0-for-6 showing against Vancouver.

"Our power play needs to take a lot of blame and, also, Luongo was very good," said Iginla. "We threw a lot at him. They weren't just bad shots. We had a lot of good shots and, unfortunately, we didn't get more by him."

With files from the Associated Press