You gotta dance with the one's that brung ya'.

Challenged by their coach to show up, Calgary's stars did just that last night against the Canucks, the Rocket Richard Trophy winner and a potential Vezina Trophy winner powering the Flames to a dramatic 2-1 victory in front of 18,630 at GM Place.

In a game that gave lie to the Ken Dryden's claim that NHL hockey is declining into the status of an "extreme sport, these two teams went to war in a no holds barred, physical, end-to-end and definitely entertaining affair, the Flames scoring two quick goals early in the first period before riding the 25 save goaltending of Miikka Kiprusoff through to their first playoff victory since a 5-0 win over San Jose in 1995.

It was Dryden a month ago who attested NHL hockey was drifting into the status of an extreme sport, destined to be marginalized out of the mainstream of North American attention.

But games like this, particularly the physical play and general combativeness of both teams, the kind of action Dryden admits he wants to largely wipe from the ice surface, shows The Great Thinker has little to offer besides theory, the screaming crowd in Vancouver and the hollering fans at sports bars across Calgary giving evidence of the product they really want to see.

It was much maligned Iginla scoring at 3:06 of the first period followed by a bizarre Matthew Lombardi marker only 50 seconds later that set the tone in this one, the fast goals forcing the Canucks into a comeback attempt against a Calgary team that had registered 41 of its 42 victories this year when scoring the first goal of a game.

The win allowed the Flames to gain some measure of control in this series, splitting the opening pair on the road, gaining home ice advantage in a seven game series in the opening round of the NHL playoffs and coming home to an expected crowd of over 20,000 on Sunday night when they play their first home playoff date since 1996.

Coach Darryl Sutter had blistered both Iginla and Kiprusoff in the Calgary media after the Flames 5-3 loss in the opening game of this series, blasting the dynamic duo for not being ready to go when the real season had started.

But Iginla was a dominating presence all night, emerging on this night as the playoff leader the Flames will so desperately need if they are to overcome their 15 year drought between post-season series wins.

"I thought he played with some emotion," said Sutter of Iginla after the game on FAN960. "It's important. You have to have emotional leaders."

While Kiprusoff deserves credit for settling down after a flat performance in the opening game of this series, it was really Calgary's overall defensive game which flattened the Canucks, Vancouver generating only eight shots by the midway point of the second period and now having only one even strength goal in two games, basically living off their power play to date.

In fact, the first two games have pretty much gone to script for the Flames, a team that managed only one win in games they'd given up more than three goals and victors in 41 games where they've surrendered less than two.

Flames opened scoring at 3:06 of the first period on a heady veteran play by Chris Simon, the gigantic winger twisting Cloutier's stick with his legs as he was passing through the crease, dragging the Vancouver goaltender out of position as Iginla capitalized into a partially open net.

Illegal? Only if you get caught.

Flames padded their lead only 50 seconds later on a strange play, a Jordan Leopold rebound off Cloutier tangling up in the equipment of the hapless Sami Salo, finally dropping to the ice where Matthew Lombardi rocketed the puck into the back of the net, Canucks netminder Cloutier still wondering what happened.

With Ed Jovanovski bumping Kiprusoff all the way back to Calgary, a clearly illegal play, Markus Naslund found an empty net on a four on three power play at 9:41 of the second period, referees Kerry Fraser and Don Van Massenhoven inexplicably missing the obvious call of goaltender interference.

Illegal? Only if you get caught.

For the Flames, the script couldn't have gone better as one of the best five on five teams in the league saw the referees largely put their whistles away and let these two teams hurl themselves at each other in dramatic fashion, Cloutier essentially matching Kiprusoff save for save, 26 in all, neither team asking for quarter nor offering it.

Expect more of the same.

"It's going to be a battle," said Lombardi after the game on FAN960. "It's going to be a grind from here on in. We just gotta play the way we gotta play."

"I liked our 'battle,'" said a surprisingly non-plussed Vancouver coach Marc Crawford after the game of his boys. "I liked our 'compete.' They played a very hard game. They did the things they needed to do to preserve the victory."

"I thought our game was a sound game," Crawford added. "I thought we did enough things to not be terribly disappointed."

The continued excellent play of rookies like Lombardi and Chuck Kobasew as well as relative newcomers like Oleg Saprykin is a developing storyline for the Flames, an unexpected bonus given the obvious pressures of the post-season.

For Lombardi, the winner was only ample reward for another hustling game.

"Its just a matter of channeling your emotions," said Lombardi.

Canucks were one for five on the power play while the Flames failed to score on their five extra man chances.

Next up . . . . a playoff game in Calgary. Truly. Sunday night.