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Jokinen, Iginla lead Flames back to even ground

Calgary 6 Chicago 4CALGARY — Flames head coach Mike Keenan had said Olli Jokinen must develop an understanding of what playoff hockey means.
Olli Jokinen, Eric Nystrom, Todd Bertuzzi
Calgary Flames' Olli Jokinen

Calgary 6 Chicago 4

CALGARY — Flames head coach Mike Keenan had said Olli Jokinen must develop an understanding of what playoff hockey means.

The light bulb went on over the head of the big Finn on Wednesday as Jokinen’s two goals and an assist helped Calgary to a 6-4 win over Chicago, sending their Western Conference best-of-seven quarter-final series back to Chicago even at two wins apiece.

Game 5 is Saturday at the United Center (TSN, 9 p.m. ET) before returning to Calgary for Game 6 on Monday.

Jokinen ended a 16-game goal drought — his longest since 2002 — with his first career playoff goals. They were also his first goals at the Pengrowth Saddledome since the Flames acquired him from Phoenix at the March 3 trade deadline.

“It’s nice to score, but it’s much nicer to win games,” said the 30-year-old Jokinen, who is playing in the post-season for the first time in his career. “It felt a lot better when we scored that fifth goal than when I scored my own goals.”

Eric Nystrom scored the eventual winner at 13:04 of the third period for his second of the post-season. Flames captain Jarome Iginla also had a pair for Calgary, including the empty-netter, to go along with an assist.

Defenceman Adrian Aucoin also scored in front of a sold-out sea of 19,289 red-clad fans.

Kris Versteeg, a nominee for the NHL’s rookie award this year, had a goal and two assists for Chicago. Patrick Kane, who sat out Monday’s Game 3 with the flu, Sammy Pahlsson and Cam Barker also scored for the Blackhawks.

Game 4 wasn’t a goaltending classic by either Miikka Kiprusoff or Chicago counterpart Nikolai Khabibulin as both gave up rebounds that led to goals. Kiprusoff made 28 saves for his second straight win, while Khabibulin turned away 22 shots.

While Khabibulin came into this series with more wins against Calgary than any other team in his career (22-5-2), the Flames got four-plus goals by the Russian for the second straight game.

“You’ve got to get bodies (in front of him) because he’s human,” Nystrom said. “He’s going to make a mistake here and there and if we put more pucks on him, there’s going to be more mistakes than if we don’t put the pucks there.”

Calgary’s 4-2 win in Game 3 ended with 64 penalty minutes in the final minute because of Adam Burish’s high cross-check on Calgary’s Rene Bourque and the ensuing melee in front of the Chicago bench.

Punching and nasty stick work away from the play continued Wednesday and there were the requisite headlocks and face-washing around the nets after whistles.

But with the game tied 1-1 and 4-4 at period breaks, the stakes were too high for either team to lose control of their emotions.

“When the games get out of hand, you take some liberties and you see that in every series,” Nystrom said. “Tonight the game was too close and a battle to the finish. It was definitely physical, there was no doubt about that.”

The Blackhawks are the youngest team in the NHL and making their first post-season appearance in seven years. After opening the series with a pair of come-from-behind wins, they had hoped to be going back to Chicago in a position to take the series.

“It’s going to be a long flight home tomorrow,” Chicago captain Jonathan Toews said. “It’s far from over.

“It’s frustrating and yes, we were up two games and you can cry about that all day about having those first two games and then letting them have the last two and letting them get back in the series.

“But we knew they weren’t going anywhere so we’re just going to have to battle and get momentum swinging back in our favour a little bit.