It was the unrelenting monotony that would have dropped you.

The predictability.

For the 14,669 fans at the Saddledome watching this bore fest, it would have been an easy call to fold up their tents and get an early start home.

The knowledge the Wild were 43-0-4 the last 47 times they held a lead entering the third period is about as sure a bet as it gets.

But the unstoppable Shean Donovan, the unlikeliest of heroes, demonstrated great strength in backhanding a shot around Manny Fernandez to knot the score at 1-1 at 1:43 of the third period, his sixth goal in his last five games.

That set the stage for the suddenly hot Jarome Iginla, taking advantage of a terrible Minnesota icing attempt, leaving the Wild changing lines as Oleg Saprykin bolted for the net, the play finished by the Flames captain for the win with only 22 seconds remaining in the third period.

"Another thriller at the Dome," the description from Flames play-by-play man Peter Maher, was a gross overstatement for the first 42 minutes of this monument to critics of the game, but the final, stunning outcome, slaying Minnesota's lengthy streak at the same time, made the cost of a ticket at least a break-even proposition.

Iginla credited the shift prior to his (Conroy, Gelinas, Donovan) for hemming the Wild in and leaving the Wild players trapped, tired and anxious for a change, setting up Saprykin halting an attempted icing and leading to the winning goal as the Minnesota opposition magically disappeared.

It was Iginla's fourth goal in his last three games, signaling his long, long cool streak may finally be over.

Iginla now has 11 points in his last eight games.

As to Donovan, a career single digit scorer, these are the best days of his life, a period of unconscious play that has seen him in an improbable blow by blow race with Iginla for the Flames scoring derby, both now with eight markers this season.

"We want to be in a playoff spot but there's so long left that we really can't look at that," Iginla told FAN960 after the game, adding the Flames are looking at their schedule one challenge at a time.

"We knew coming in that Calgary was playing very well," analyzed a despondent Richard Park of the Wild after the game. "They kept coming and coming and they got a few good bounces."

The victory left the Flames at 12-8-1-3 on the season, good for 28 points, lifting Calgary into a sixth place tie in the NHL's Western Conference with idle Los Angeles.

Calgary has a game in hand on the Kings and a game in hand on Nashville, the latter one point ahead of the Flames.

The victory capped a perfect night of scoreboard watching, the Flames dousing the Wild in Minnesota in regulation time while advancing further up on Phoenix and Anaheim, both with 25 points and both losers earlier in the night. Calgary has two and three games in hand respectively on the Coyotes and Ducks.

It was the ninth consecutive game the Flames had secured at least a single point.

Pascal Dupuis opened scoring on Minnesota's first shot of the game at 1:54 of the first but Calgary starter Miikka Kiprusoff stopped everything else after that, finishing with 22 saves.

Kiprusoff has made six starts for Calgary since being acquired last month from San Jose, surrendering only one goal in five of those games and generating a 5-0-0-1 record.

Fernandez was busier with 31 Flames shots directed his way.

Both teams failed to score on three power play opportunities.

Next up for the Flames is the rudderless Pittsburgh Penguins, probably minus Mario Lemieux.