ESPN NHL

CALGARY, Alberta -- Michael Cammalleri can't help but look forward to his first NHL playoff game.

The left winger helped Calgary move a step closer to locking up a postseason spot, scoring his 31st and 32nd goals of the season Friday night in the Flames' 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild.

"Playing with all these guys has been really enjoyable but the real exciting part is the way we're playing coming down the stretch here and the idea of competing in the playoffs," said Cammalleri, signed to a one-year contract in the offseason after five seasons with the Los Angeles Kings.

"That's all stuff that gets me really excited. I can't wait."

Miikka Kiprusoff made 15 saves, and Dion Phaneuf and Jamie Lundmark also scored for Calgary, which has won four straight and picked up points in nine games in a row (7-0-2). Wild defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron spoiled Kiprusoff's shutout bid with 3:36 left.

Calgary opened the scoring with goals 20 seconds apart in the first minute of the second period. Jarome Iginla and Craig Conroy set up Cammalleri for his first goal of the game, and Phaneuf made it 2-0 with a slap shot at 37 seconds.

"Dion can shoot the puck as we all know. It's tough on the goaltender when you have bodies in front and you can't see what's coming," Flames coach Mike Keenan said. "That's basically how that unfolded and I think that really energized our team."

Cammalleri made it 3-0 with 5:21 left in the third with a power-play goal.

"It's easy to get impatient and try to press it and then you start making mistakes and that's what they're hoping for," said Cammalleri, two goals off his career best of 34 set in 2006-07.

Clinging to a playoff spot in the Western Conference, the Wild remained in a four-way tie for seventh place.

Niklas Backstrom made 25 saves for Minnesota, 3-17-4 overall in Calgary and 1-13-2 in its last 16 game at the Saddledome.

"It was a tough night for us. I don't think we were even close," Backstrom said. "They scored a couple big goals in the beginning of the second and the game was over. We need to get better tomorrow. It's going to take a whole 60 minutes."

The Wild will face Edmonton, one of the teams they're even with in the standings, on Saturday night in the second stop of their six-game trip.

"You just try to move on and you make sure that you're ready to play tomorrow," Bergeron said. "Edmonton is a team that's fighting for its life also. We've got to make sure that we're ready to go. If they score one or two quick goals, we can't get our head between our legs and quit. We've got to keep playing and we've got to keep playing hard."

Game notes

Iginla has 829 career points, one behind Theoren Fleury for the franchise record. ... Calgary LW David Van der Gulik made his NHL debut. ... Kiprusoff is 23-6-3 against Minnesota.