Kiprusoff blanks Stars

Friday, March 10, 2006

Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff did something no other goalie had been able to do this season -- shutout the Dallas Stars. Kiprusoff stopped 39 shots for his league-leading eighth shutout of the season and handed the Stars their first shutout of the season as the Calgary Flames beat the Stars 1-0 at the Pengrowth Saddledome Thursday night.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Stars, who ended up going 0-7 on the power play and missed on a 1:08 five-on-three power play that was part of 4:52 stretch of power play time for the Stars.

Daymond Langkow's first period goal was the lone score of the game.

''He (Kiprusoff) was unbelievable again, you can't say enough about him," Langkow told the Canadian Press. "He came up huge time and time again and that's what we needed because they're a good offensive team with great speed up front and they're hard to contain."

Stars goalie Marty Turco stopped 23 of of 24 shots.

The Stars fell four points behind Detroit for first overall in the Western Conference.

The Stars outshot the Flames 15-5 in the first period and had two full power plays, but Calgary scored the only goal.

That came while the two teams were skating four-on-four. After a Stars turnover, Flames forward Tony Amonte was able to get to the puck in the left faceoff circle and send it back to the point. Dion Phaneuf fired a shot on net that Langkow deflected it past Turco at the 14:50 to give Calgary a 1-0 lead.

The Stars outshot the Flames again the second period, this time by a 9-5 margin. But neither team scored. The Stars best chance may have been a backhand shot by Jere Lehtinen that was denied by Kiprusoff.

The Stars got a great chance to score on the power play early in the third when 52 seconds into a Flames' penalty, Calgary defenseman Jordan Leopold was given a double-minor for high sticking Jason Arnott.  That put the Stars on a five-on-three power play for 1:08.

Kiprusoff came up with a nice save on a close range shot from Brenden Morrow and then made a nifty glove save on a Mike Modano shot from the slot to help kill off the two-man advantage.

But the Stars still had 2:52 in power play left, but couldn't get a score. Kiprusoff capped off the kill with a great sliding save on a Niko Kapanen shot from the right faceoff circle.

"We did exactly what we wanted to do, we got great looks at the net, we moved the puck around well, we had good point blank shots, we did everything but put it in," Modano told the CP.

The Stars got a power play with 1:01 left in the game and pulled Turco for a six-on-four advantage, but a holding call on Arnott negated the power play and time ran out on the Stars.

Official Scoresheet | Official Super Stats