TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Martin Gelinas started the Stanley Cup finals the same way he usually ends playoff series, with a big goal. No wonder the Calgary Flames again looked right at home on the road in these improbable playoffs.

The Flames shook off a five-day layoff and any jitters about playing for hockey’s biggest prize, scoring on their first shot in the finals since 1989 and riding a superb two-way game by star Jarome Iginla to surprise the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-1 in Game 1 Tuesday night.

Iginla, stamping himself as hockey’s best player in the kind of playoffs usually enjoyed only by superstars, scored short-handed to make it 2-0 in the second. He also so disrupted what had been a dominating Tampa Bay power play that the Lightning started looking tentative until Martin St. Louis scored early in the third period, with Calgary already up by three goals.

The Flames, also getting a goal from Stephane Yelle only 2:47 after Iginla scored in the second, improved to a remarkable 9-2 on the road with five consecutive victories – including all three games at San Jose in the Western Conference finals.

Game 2 is here Thursday night.

Iginla was a game-long force on the penalty kill as the Flames killed off all but one of Tampa Bay’s five power plays. The Lightning had scored on seven of their previous 14 power plays and has scored at least one man-advantage goal in seven straight games.

That hesitancy carried over to even strength as the Lightning created few odd-man rushes and never developed the effective transition game they had in the first three rounds. It didn’t help that Flames goalie Miika Kiprusoff, a third-teamer in San Jose earlier this season, was sharp and in control from the start, or exactly what Nikolai Khabibulin wasn’t.

Calgary, the first Canadian team to play for the Cup in 10 years, started the finals the same way they ended the San Jose series: with key goals by Gelinas and Iginla and a determined defensive effort in which Iginla was just as good without the puck as he was with it.

The Flames got a huge and potential momentum-swinging break on their very first shot, with 3:02 gone, when Craig Conroy’s slap shot from the high slot deflected off Tampa Bay forward Dave Andreychuk’s shoulder and again off Gelinas, causing it to glance off Khabibulin’s right leg and trickle across the goal line.

Gelinas became known as “The Eliminator” for scoring the decisive goal in each of Calgary’s first three playoff series victories, only to start this series with his seventh of the playoffs.

That the Flames quickly seized control was no surprise; they own a 10-4 scoring advantage in the first period. They haven’t allowed a first-period goal in an NHL-record nine consecutive playoff games, helping them start each of the their last three playoff series with road victories, at Detroit, San Jose and Tampa Bay.

But it was Iginla’s playoff-leading 10th goal that really disheartened the Lightning and the 21,674 fans jammed into the arena formerly known as the Ice Palace. He picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and fed it up ice to himself, initially missing on a wrist shot only to scoop up the loose puck in the left corner and line-drive it past Khabibulin’s shoulder at 15:21 of the second.

Yelle made it 3-0 at 18:08, digging the puck out from along the end boards and throwing it over Khabibulin’s left shoulder without the goalie reacting.

Khabibulin’s 1.65 goals-against average coming into the game was the best of the playoffs, but the goals by Gelinas and Yelle were the kind of soft scores that led coach John Tortorella to bench him for a pivotal Game 5 in 2003 Eastern Conference semifinals against Philadelphia.

Notes: The Flames are trying to become the first team in league history to defeat four consecutive 100-point opponents in one playoff year. … Tampa Bay is 7-3 at home in the playoffs. … Calgary has a 30-19 road scoring edge in the playoffs. … The crowd was slightly smaller than that for the Lightning’s 2-1 victory over Philadelphia in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night.