Canadian Press

CALGARY (CP) - Miikka Kiprusoff's goaltending, another huge power-play goal by Chris Simon and a Gordie Howe hat trick by Jarome Iginla on Saturday night moved the Calgary Flames to within two wins of becoming the first Canadian team in 11 years to win the Stanley Cup.

Kiprusoff stopped all 21 Tampa Bay shots and Simon, Iginla and Shean Donovan scored the goals in a 3-0 victory over the Lightning that put the Flames up 2-1 in the NHL's championship series.

What a resilient team.

After losing 4-1 on Thursday in Tampa, Fla., the Flames bounced back by returning to the physical, hard-hat hockey that has led them to one upset series triumph after another this spring.

"We wanted to play a more disciplined, patient type of game and I think we got that," said coach Darryl Sutter.

No question about that. Tampa Bay couldn't cope.

"We know they are a physical team," said Lightning coach John Tortorella. "We need to respond physically, and that's all part of playoff hockey."

Game 4 is Monday night, and the Flames have all the momentum now. Teams winning Game 3 of the NHL final with the series tied 1-1 have won the Stanley Cup in 21 of 24 times (87.5 per cent).

Kiprusoff improved to 7-1 with a 1.17 goals-against average, .953 save percentage and four shutouts following a loss in the playoffs.

"The reason we're here is because of Kipper," said Donovan. "He had a great game, made some huge saves for us.

"He's the best goalie in the league."

Tampa Bay outshot Calgary 21-18 in Game 3.

Overall, it was the Finnish goalie's fifth shutout in these playoffs. He's only the fourth goaltender in NHL history to post as many as five shutouts in one playoff year. The others were Martin Brodeur, who had seven in 2003 for New Jersey, Dominik Hasek, who had six for Detroit in 2002, and Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who had five for Anaheim in 2003.

"Kipper is a good goalie," Martin St. Louis conceded. "We didn't get enough pucks on net, we didn't get enough scoring chances.

"They earned the victory. They beat us in every area. But we'll be back."

The Flames aggressively laid on the body from the opening whistle, and in the seventh minute Lecavalier, being pestered by Iginla, dropped the gloves. Iginla obliged. He drove a fist into Lecavalier's head to send him crashing to the ice. Nobody in attendance could recall the last time two scoring stars were in a punchup in a scoreless championship series game. Lecavalier, the first star of Game 2, was a non-factor the rest of the way, managing only one harmless second-period shot.

"That fight was huge," said Simon. "It really set the tone physically for us.

"We'd talked about that before the game, that we had to bring a physical presence. They have got a lot of skill on that side and especially their top two lines. If you give them time and space, they can thread the needle through anybody, and we tried to take away their time and space."

Fredrik Modin got the first clear scoring opportunity early in the second period. With all the time in the world 10 feet in front of Kiprusoff, Modin shot high and the Finn flashed out his left hand to deflect the puck over the net with his catching mitt.

Power plays weren't working for either team - Calgary was 0-2 and Tampa Bay 0-3 - until Brad Lukowich of the Lightning pulled down Donovan at 13:03 of the second period. Kiprusoff made a dazzling save on Brad Richards with Lukowich off. Then Simon struck.

The trading-deadline pickup from the New York Rangers took two shots that were blocked by Dan Boyle but when the puck bounced back to him yet again he slipped it past a fallen Nikolai Khabibulin at 13:53 for his fifth goal of the playoffs.

"I don't mean to pat myself on the back but we needed to get a power-play goal," Simon said. "Jarome made a really nice play to me, it was pretty much an individual effort all the way up the ice.

"He gave me a wide open net, hit the D and I ended up putting it in. We knew we needed to do something on special teams and our PK got it done and Miikka was awesome."

Simon jumped into the end glass in celebrating his goal.

"I was so excited I didn't know what I was doing out there," he said. "It was just emotion and, you know, I was just so happy to score a goal."

Simon has scored four of Calgary's six power-play goals in the playoffs since moving over from the Rangers.

"He's been so big for us since he's come in," said Iginla. "He gets so much room, and he deserves it. He plays tough and he plays hard."

A giveaway by Lecavalier set up Donovan's goal at 17:09 of the second period. Lecavalier had the puck behind the goal-line in the Calgary end and sent a pass out front that was way off the mark. Donovan gobbled it up and dashed towards Khabibulin on a 2-on-1 break with Chuck Kobasew.

Donovan took the shot himself, from the circle to the right of Khabibulin, and it was a dandy. The puck lodged in the far top corner of the net, Donovan had his fifth goal of the playoffs, and the capacity crowd of 19,220 went wild.

"I thought it was going to be a 2-on-2, I thought the other guy was with us," said Donovan. "But Lukowich shaded over to Chucky so I had to shoot and I got away a lucky shot."

Said Iginla: "It was a huge momentum turner."

A penalty to Donovan for dragging down Nolan Pratt four minutes into the third period gave Tampa Bay a chance to get back into the game but the Lightning power play failed to strike on its fourth chance of the night.

The Flames wouldn't let up. Defenceman Robyn Regehr knocked Ruslan Fedotenko out of the game with 5 1-2 minutes left with a crushing body check into the side boards. Fedotenko was later taken to hospital with an undetermined injury.

Iginla redirected in a Regehr pass at 18:28 of the third period with Cory Sarich in the penalty box to round out the scoring. The fight, an assist on Simon's goal and his league-best 12th goal of the playoffs gave him the Gordie Howe hat trick.

"Everybody knows what's on the line," said Iginla. "They raised their game physically last game and I thought we really upped it as a group physically. The fight just kind of happened."

The challenge every opponent has faced against the Flames is trying to outwork them. Once again, it was impossible to do. The Lightning have to be disheartened by this loss. The body language of frustrated league scoring champion St. Louis in the closing minutes certainly suggested as much.<