The Calgary Flames' sluggish offence finally showed some signs of life in the finale of a four-game homestand.

Duplicating that success could prove to be difficult Sunday when they visit Niklas Backstrom and the Minnesota Wild.

Those Wild have beaten the Flames four straight times, and each was backstopped by Backstrom.

Despite having scored the second-fewest goals in the NHL with 161, Calgary (31-24-9) is in the mix for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference.

The play of Miikka Kiprusoff is a big reason the Flames are in this position, as he boasts one of the league's best goals-against averages, at 2.22.

While Kiprusoff has bailed out the lowly offence several times, Calgary didn't need to rely on him Friday against New Jersey. Five players scored in a 5-3 win, the Flames' highest-scoring game since a 6-1 victory over Edmonton on Jan. 30.

Calgary hopes this is a sign of things to come after scoring seven goals in winning once in its previous five games.

"Obviously you're thinking about it. Especially when you're losing," said centre Daymond Langkow, who ended his 21-game goal-scoring drought Friday. "You feel like you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing out there and then maybe you change your game a little bit and it just gets worse.

"It was nice to get five. That's the way we've got to play every night, with that same emotion and intensity."

The Flames didn't have that enthusiasm in a 4-0 loss to the Wild (31-27-5) on Wednesday, as Backstrom stopped 29 shots in recording his second shutout.

Backstrom was Kiprusoff's backup for bronze-medal winning Finland at the Vancouver Games and has upstaged his Olympic teammate in the series recently.

He's stopped 103 of 105 shots while recording two shutouts in the last four against Calgary. Kiprusoff, meanwhile, has a 3.46 GAA in those losses after posting a 1.56 GAA in winning the previous five.

After beating Kiprusoff in the first game after the Olympics, Backstrom had another stellar performance Friday at Edmonton, but Minnesota's offence came out flat. The goaltender made 22 saves in a 2-1 shootout loss to the league's worst club — a disheartening effort for a Wild team with playoff aspirations.

"There are a couple teams between us and eighth place so to play like we did was very disappointing," forward Owen Nolan said.

"We have to be better than that. There are no excuses. We just didn't play good hockey. We didn't play as well as we should have. We need every point we can get and we let one slip away."

The Wild hope to get things turned around with a return to Minnesota, where they've won nine of 12, a stretch that began with a 4-1 victory over the Flames on Jan. 6.

Minnesota will be without forward Derek Boogaard, suspended two games for delivering a knee hit on Edmonton forward Ryan Jones.