"Miikka Kiprusoff has failed to play well in three straight starts. All, not surprisingly, turned into losses.

And the Calgary Flames coach is losing his patience.

Against the Vancouver Canucks and the Detroit Red Wings last week, Brent Sutter had allowed his star goalie the luxury of playing through his troubles.

But Tuesday?

Kiprusoff got the hook after permitting four goals on eight shots.

The coach admitted that goaltending is a legitimate concern.

"Absolutely," Sutter, fuming, said after the 6-5 shootout loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in National Hockey League action at the RBC Center. "Hey, he's accountable like everybody else. He's battling it right now . . . he's got to work himself through it. And Kipper will, but it's that time of year when we can't afford to not have good goaltending. Kipper is obviously a very good goaltender, but right now he's fighting it."

When was the last time the identity of the Flames' starting netminder was in doubt?

Because it is an issue now.

Is Kiprusoff making it difficult to decide which goalie gets the nod, coach?

"Absolutely," he said. "Too many easy goals - that's bothersome."

As for reliever Henrik (The Calgary Tower) Karlsson, he blocked 21 of 22 pucks (including a doozie in overtime).

"He played extremely well," said Sutter. "What he did in net for us . . . was he battled. That's what we want to see with our whole team."

Which the coach did see . . . for about 40 minutes. Decent first. Junk second. Super third.

"It's getting redundant," said Brendan Morrison. "Every game, the last little while, we're doing something to shoot ourselves in the foot. Same story. Do we feel we should have won the game? Yes. Did we win the game? No. At some point, it's got to stop."