Calgary Flames 2, Dallas Stars 1

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — The Calgary Flames clinched a playoff spot with a 2-1 victory Thursday night at the American Airlines Center, and pushed the Dallas Stars closer to missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

"We will not roll over and die, we are professionals and we will play hard for our coaches, owners, fans and for each other, our teammates," said Stars defenseman Darryl Sydor. "You learn and grow as a player through adversity and you find the best in people during tough times."

And times are tough right now for the Stars, who are 1-6-2 in their last nine games overall and 2-9-1 in their last 12 games at home.

The Stars remained in 12th place in the Western Conference, seven points out of the final playoff spot with four games left on their schedule.

"You have to keep pushing every single day, you never know," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "You have to will yourself until someone tells you it's done."

It could be done as early as Friday. With both Anaheim and St. Louis winning Thursday night, a win by Nashville Friday night in Chicago would eliminate the Stars from the playoffs.

The Stars struck first in the game Thursday night when Fabian Brunnstrom took a pass from James Neal, broke on net and beat Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff with a backhand shot 3:02 into the game.

"I got a good pass from Nealer and Lundy (Joel Lundqvist) did some good work," said Brunnstrom. "I just tried to go deep on the goalie and it went in."

But that was all the Stars would get against Kiprusoff, who stopped 29 of 30 shots on the night.

"He's one of the best," said Stars center Mike Modano. "He's very established and we didn't get much in terms of quality chances."

The Flames drew even at 10:40 of the first period when Flames defenseman Jordan Leopold carried the puck deep into the Stars zone and slipped it to captain Jarome Iginla, who beat Dallas goalie Marty Turco from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.

The Flames got the game-winner at 12:21 of the second period when Jim Vandermeer got to a rebound and passed it to Dion Phaneuf, whose blast from the left point was deflected into the net by Craig Conroy.

The Stars outshot the Flames 10-1 in the third period and had a couple of power play chances, but couldn't crack Kiprusoff and the Flames, who moved back into first place the Northwest Division thanks to the Ducks' shootout win over the Vancouver Canucks.

"Making the playoffs is just a step on the way to another one," said Iginla. "We didn't even talk about it afterward. I'm sure we'll talk about it on the bus, but our goal is more than that."

The Stars play their final regular season home game Saturday against St. Louis.