"It's a rare night indeed when Miikka Kiprusoff declines interview requests after a hockey game.

But with the man himself unavailable to chat, the Calgary Flames took turns accepting the blame Monday for the four goals that eluded their No. 1 netminder in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens.

"Without him, it could have been 6-0 or 7-0," said centre Olli Jokinen. "We all should be a little bit embarrassed about the way we played in front of him at the beginning of the game -- giving up breakaways and odd-man rushes.

"He's our best player most of the nights.

"We have to do a better job in front of him."

Head coach Brent Sutter invoked the hook on Kiprusoff for the second time in three games.

In Carolina last Monday, the Hurricanes chased the starting goaltender to the bench after he surrendered four goals on eight shots.

On this night, Kiprusoff left the net after giving up four goals on 17 shots.

"Kipper's our horse," said defenceman Adam Pardy. "He's always going to be our go-to guy."

Sutter told Kiprusoff right when he got to the bench that his decision has nothing to do with performance. The coach simply wanted to change things up with the Flames down 4-0 in hostile territory.

The first Montreal goal came on a bizarre bounce. The puck pingponged from the stick of Tomas Plekanec to the skate of Michael Cammalleri to the stick of Lars Eller. The rookie made no mistake ripping the puck top shelf.

The second goal came on a wicked shot that Cammalleri labelled for the top corner after busting out of the penalty box. It's questionable how many goaltenders -- if any -- in the National Hockey League would have stopped that one.

As for the third and fourth goals, both times the puck hit Pardy on the way in.

It was one of those games, and Kiprusoff's had more than his share in the past two weeks."