"Like a boxer who had to battle through a couple of standing eight counts and persevered for a win, Miikka Kiprusoff took a step forward with his game in Saturday's 4-3 shootout win over Vancouver.

Now, he must build on it.

The struggles experienced the past few weeks by the Calgary Flames netminder have been front and centre of late.

The calling out by head coach Brent Sutter after being hooked in Carolina. Another tough outing which meant going to the bench in favour of Henrik Karlsson in Montreal, and then the jeering from the Flames faithful in a 6-0 home loss to Minnesota last week.

There was relief when he delivered a 41-save performance through overtime and denied two of three opponents in the shootout to defeat the Western Conference leaders.

"I felt really good," he said when assessing his outing against the Canucks. "It's a big challenge, they're a good team, and it felt good to do my job."

It wasn't classic Kiprusoff.

Not when he surrendered a goal on the first shot, a long blast that went through the wickets

Not when he was beat by a couple of others, one due to being out of position -- a back-door play to Alex Edler -- and one of those screened shots that managed to squeeze between his arm and body."