Flames 4 Canucks 3 (SO)
VANCOUVER — Alex Tanguay scored a controversial shootout winner Saturday to give the Calgary Flames a 4-3 victory over Vancouver and hand the Canucks their fourth straight loss.
Canuck goalie Roberto Luongo sprawled when Tanguay came in on him and backhanded the puck. A video review revealed the puck was in Luongo’s pads as he slid into the net.
Rene Bourque also scored for Calgary in the shootout while Jeff Tambellini got the opening goal of the tie-breaker for Vancouver.
Luongo remained unbeaten in regulation time for a 15th straight game, going 10-0-5 in that span.
Brendan Morrison, Curtis Glencross and Tim Jackman scored for the Flames in regulation.
Alex Edler, with two goals, and Ryan Kesler counted for the Canucks, who outshot Calgary 44-33.
It was the second win in as many nights for the Flames, who are trying to get back in the Western Conference playoff picture.
Calgary improved to 22-21-6 with their fourth win in six games while the conference-leading Canucks dropped to 29-10-9.
Vancouver picked up a single point for the third straight game to move three ahead of second-place Detroit, which lost 4-1 to Chicago.
Kesler’s short-handed goal drew the Canucks even at 3-3 midway through the third period.
He took Alex Burrows’ pass and rifled a shot from the top of the face-off circle that deflected past goalie Miikka Kiprusoff off the stick of Tanguay.
The goal was Kesler’s 26th of the season and matched a career high.
Jackman gave the Flames a one-goal lead earlier in the period when he scored his third goal in as many games this season against the Canucks.
He went to the net when Luongo couldn’t control Adam Pardy’s high shot and drilled the puck behind the Vancouver netminder.
The Flames gave up a goal on Vancouver’s first shot but scored twice within 20 seconds to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Morrison, who signed with Calgary after failing to crack the Canucks’ lineup in training camp, scored his seventh goal of the season on a power play.
He snapped a close-in shot over Luongo with Jackman creating havoc at the edge of the crease.
Calgary took the lead when two Vancouver defenders got tangled up behind their net. Matt Stajan recovered the puck and found Glencross in front.
Luongo denied Glencross on a breakaway early in the third period when the Flames winger took a pass through the neutral zone, only to have his shot go off the goalie’s glove.
The Canucks, who had only four goals in their previous three games, led 3:32 after the opening face-off.
Henrik Sedin gained the blue-line and dropped the puck for Edler whose long shot beat Kiprusoff.
The Calgary netminder had surrendered 10 goals on 57 shots in his previous two games against Vancouver.
He was caught out of position when Edler scored his eighth of the season and fourth in five games as Vancouver drew even early in the second period.
Burrows fired a cross-crease pass to the Canuck defenceman who scored from a sharp angle.
NOTES: Canuck defenceman Kevin Bieksa left the game after a brief first-period scrap with Tom Kostopoulos and did not return . . . The Flames winger returned to the lineup after serving a six-game suspension for the hit that broke the jaw of Detroit’s Brad Stuart . . . Sergei Shirokov, benched in the third period of Thursday’s 2-1 shootout loss to San Jose, was a healthy scratch from the Canucks’ lineup. He scored his first NHL goal in his season debut Tuesday, a 4-3 overtime loss to Colorado . . . The grittier Aaron Volpatti was back in the Canucks lineup.