Flames aim to continue dominance of Oilers

A pair of Northwest Division inhabitants get together tonight in Edmonton, where the Calgary Flames look for their seventh straight win over the Oilers at Rexall Place.

Calgary posted its sixth win in a row against the Oilers with a 2-1 victory on Oct. 18 at the Saddledome. Jay Bouwmeester and Alex Tanguay scored 89 seconds apart late in regulation, while Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 24 shots for the Flames, who have prevailed in 15 of the past 17 meetings between the teams.

The Flames have won two straight and five of their last six at Rexall Place, but enter tonight's tilt on a sour note. They had a two-game winning streak stopped with Thursday's 4-3 shootout loss versus Columbus and fell for the fourth time in six tries. Kiprusoff stopped 30 shots for Calgary, which blew a 3-1 lead late in the game and got goals from Lee Stempniak, Rene Bourque and Blake Comeau.

"The last 4 1/2 minutes we made too many mistakes and we didn't play a smart game up two goals," said Flames coach Brent Sutter. "You can't have a lull when you're up two goals or at any time in your own building."

Calgary will also visit Vancouver on the brief road trip and is 5-7-0 away from home this season. It is also last in the Northwest standings. Bourque notched his seventh goal of the season, tying him with Jarome Iginla and Curtis Glencross for the team lead in that category. Iginla is still nine goals from 500 in his career.

Edmonton put the brakes on a three-game losing streak with Friday's 6-3 win versus Columbus. Ryan Jones registered his third career hat trick, scoring three times during a five-goal third period, for the Oilers, who are 1-1-1 on a six-game homestand and 8-3-2 at Rexall Place.

"An exciting game," said Jones. "We knew we had to come out in the third and just throw everything at them, and that's exactly what we did."

Ladislav Smid, Ales Hemsky and Jordan Eberle had a goal apiece, while Devan Dubnyk had 36 saves in a winning cause. Eberle has 14 points in his last 10 games. The Oilers are tied with Vancouver for second in the Northwest Division, six points behind Minnesota (35 pts).

The Oilers will also host Carolina and Colorado on the homestand.