Look out for Finland at the Vancouver Olympics.
That's what many fans at the Saddledome may have been thinking as they witnessed a brilliant display of goaltending Friday night by the two men expected to contend for the Finns' No. 1 job at the Winter Games.
The Flames' Miikka Kiprusoff shined the brightest, making 44 saves, but the Wild's Niklas Backstrom got the last laugh when Minnesota rallied for a 2-1 victory in overtime.
"It's a shame to waste a performance like that," said Calgary assistant coach Dave Lowry. "[Kiprusoff] gave us every opportunity to win."
Martin Havlat converted a smooth feed from Marek Zidlicky with 1:45 left in the extra frame to make a winner of Backstrom, who finished with 22 stops.
"He played great, as he always does," said Wild forward Chuck Kobasew, a former Flame. "We expect that from him and know it's going to take great shots to beat him. We stuck with it. We had chances, you can't let that frustrate you. You keep going."
The star goalies kept the game scoreless for 45 minutes until Calgary's Aaron Johnson hammered one past Backstrom to give Calgary a short-lived lead.
"It was a hard as I could make it, that's for sure," said Johnson. "I was just trying to get on net and obviously excited for my first goal as a Flame."
James Sheppard evened things up four minutes later, capitalizing on a weird bounce off the end boards to beat a befuddled Kiprusoff for the first time.
It was only the 12th goal allowed by Kiprusoff in his last 10 games — a stellar stretch that started after the Flames netminder was slammed for six goals in a 7-1 loss to Chicago on Nov. 19.
Friday's defeat dropped Calgary (19-8-4) to 7-2-2 since the Blackhawks beating. The Northwest Division leaders have alternated wins and losses over their last six.
"I don't think we make any excuses for our performance," said Lowry. "We weren't sharp."
With Backstrom as their backbone, the Wild (15-13-3) have won seven of their last eight. Thanks to a brutal start, Minnesota still occupies the basement of the Northwest, but is now just a point away from creating a three-way tie for third place with Vancouver and Edmonton.
