"The Vancouver Canucks have collected a pile of points the last month in games they could have lost. Saturday, they lost a game they played well enough to win.

Jarome Iginla's shootout goal, a few minutes after the Calgary Flames' captain was stuffed by goalie Roberto Luongo on a breakaway near the end of regulation time, gave his team a 3-2 win over the Canucks to cap Hockey Day in Canada.

It wasn't the Canucks night. Despite outplaying the Flames for much of the game, the Canucks had to rally from a two-goal deficit to force extra time. But the lottery loss in the shootout tarnished what was a perfect road trip, as Vancouver headed home from its four-game journey at 3-0-1.

They play the Phoenix Coyotes Monday at Rogers Arena.

"To tell you the truth, I thought we played a real good game tonight from start to finish," Canuck coach Alain Vigneault said. "In my mind, this was probably our best game of the road trip and we lost. That's hockey sometimes. We really liked the way we played. I thought we should have won it in regulation, but sometimes stuff happens."

Luongo failed to stop two of three shootout chances, while Flames' goalie Miikka Kiprusoff was beaten only by Alex Burrows. But Kiprusoff, honoured before the game for earning 300 National Hockey League victories, was excellent in the second half of the game and made a stunning glove save on Henrik Sedin halfway through the third period.

The Canucks are 6-0-3 in their last nine games and haven't lost outright since Jan. 15. Saturday was the fourth time in two weeks Vancouver came from behind in the third period to earn at least a point. But unlike several games the last six weeks, the team didn't wait until the third period to start playing."