Flames 6, Oilers 1
Captain Jarome Iginla recorded his second hat trick of the season and reached the 40-goal mark for the fourth time in his career as the Calgary Flames rolled to a 6-1 home triumph over the Edmonton Oilers in this season's final edition of the "Battle of Alberta" on Wednesday.
Despite the victory, the Flames (41-29-11) officially were eliminated from the Western Conference playoff race thanks to wins on Wednesday by Anaheim (45-30-5) and Chicago (43-28-9), who are seventh and eighth, respectively.
Alex Tanguay notched a goal and two assists, Mikael Backlund set up three scores and Rene Bourque and Curtis Glencross also scored for Calgary, which has won four of its last five games and five straight meetings with its provincial rival.
Miikka Kiprusoff stopped 22 shots en route to his 262nd win with the Flames, tying Mike Vernon for first place on the franchise list.
After Bourque gave Calgary a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal early in the second period, Iginla extended his point streak to six games at 13:18 with his 40th tally.
The two-time Maurice Richard Trophy winner beat Nikolai Khabibulin with a one-timer from the left faceoff dot during a man advantage just over three minutes later to make it 3-0 and completed his 12th career hat trick at 6:47 of the third. Iginla, who also had an assist, has scored nine goals in his last six games.
Rookie Magnus Paajarvi extended his goal-scoring streak to three games and Khabibulin made 41 saves for the Oilers, who have lost eight of their last nine road contests.