Cunucks Dim Calgary's Flame

The Calgary Flames lost a game, then lost a playoff berth.

Garth Snow made 41 saves and Dave Gagner broke a scoreless tie with 6:17 left in the third period as the Vancouver Canucks beat the Flames 2-0 on Monday night.

The loss extended Calgary's winless streak to eight games (0-7-1). Coupled with Edmonton's 5-4 overtime victory later over San Jose, the Flames were eliminated from the playoffs.

"This one is a tough one to take," said Flames center Cory Stillman before learning of the Oilers' victory. "We have to win every game from now on in, but it's out of our hands for now, we just have to hope the Oilers lose their games."

Gagner won a faceoff from Jeff Shantz and broke to the net taking a pass from Alexander Mogilny and flipped a shot over the blocker of goaltender Fred Brathwaite.

Mogilny added an empty-net goal for the Canucks, who beat Calgary for the fourth time in five meetings this season. The win snapped Vancouver's six-game winless streak (0-5-1).

"It puts a bright spot on what's been a disappointing season," said Snow, who recorded his sixth shutout.

Despite holding a 41-23 edge in shots, Calgary generated few dangerous scoring chances with many of the shots coming from a long way out.

"It was a like a warm-up, they were firing it from all over," Snow said.

Calgary has won just twice on home ice since a 6-2 victory Feb. 22 over the New York Rangers. In the nine home games since that win, which came while Theoren Fleury was still a Flame, Calgary has scored just 12 goals with no more than two goals in one game.

"On most teams, there are usually streaky goal scorers where somebody will get hot for the 10 or 11 games while some guys cool off but right now, we have no one scoring goals," Stillman said. "We have to find a way to score more than one goal a game."

Vancouver nearly opened the scorinin the third minute while short- handed. Mogilny stripped Flames defenseman Phil Housley of the puck and broke in alone on Brathwaite, who stopped his slap shot from 30 feet.

The Flames then appeared to tie it at 5:13 when Rene Corbet chipped the puck over Snow. However, the video goal judge ruled that the skates of Jeff Shantz were in the goal crease.

Stillman had a chance shortly after, but his whack at a bouncing rebound went over Snow's shoulder and hit the goal post.

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