Flames snap Red Wings’ three-game win streak at Joe Louis Arena

Justin Abdelkader celebrates scoring against the Vancouver Canucks Monday night at Joe Louis Arena. (Photo by Jen Hefner/MiHockey)
(Photo by Jen Hefner/MiHockey)

 

By @SKubus – 

DETROIT – On the heels of a big overtime victory over the New York Rangers Wednesday night, the Red Wings were unable to take their fourth-straight victory Friday night at Joe Louis Arena.

The Calgary Flames came into town, playing the second of a back-to-back on the road and took two points from the Red Wings with a 5-2 win, largely due to the 34-save performance from Jonas Hiller. Sean Monahan, Matt Stajan, Mason Raymond and former Red Wings forward Jiri Hudler scored for the Flames. Justin Abdelkader potted a pair of first-period goals early, but that was all Detroit could muster up.

“I thought we had some good sustained pressure at times, but not long enough,” Abdelkader said. “In this league, it doesn’t matter if you outshoot the team or not all the time; you’ve got to play a full 60 minutes and I think we got off our game there after getting that lead and kind of got sloppy turning the puck over. We had chances, we didn’t bury them, but they made the most of their opportunities and took it to us there for a bit.”

Head coach Mike Babcock said the team did some good things, like control the “territorial play,” but at the end of the night, the Flames came out the better team.

“The bottom line is, we leave here disappointed because we didn’t do our job,” Babcock said.

The newly-formed line of Henrik Zetterberg, Erik Cole and Abdelkader was arguably the lone bright spot for Detroit, as the trio combined for all six of Detroit’s points on the evening.

“I thought our line did a lot of good things out there,” Abdelkader said. “Z made some good plays, Cole can skate and shoot the puck… more than anything we’re just trying to produce as a line, as a team and I was fortunate to get a few there, but I think we got those couple goals and then we kind of sat back and got sloppy there and they got back in the game, they found energy, found ways to create turnovers and get pucks in our net.”

A mere 3:05 into the contest, Cole sent a bank pass behind his net to Zetterberg. From his own goal line, the Red Wings captain immediately fired a hard pass to Abdelkader at the far blue line to spring him on a breakaway. Abdelkader broke in and beat Calgary netminder Jonas Hiller on the short side to give the Red Wings an early 1-0 advantage.

Not even halfway through the frame with the Red Wings on the game’s first powerplay, Abdelkader potted his second of the tilt, banging home a back-door pass, once again set up beautifully by Zetterberg.

“That’s the player he is,” Abdelkader said of his captain. “He skates with his head up, he’s really smart, he kind of knows the play he’s going to make before he makes it, thinking ahead of the opponent out there. I was fortunate on both those plays. He made great passes and that’s what he does.”

But Calgary responded quickly, as Monahan potted his 24th of the season on the powerplay with Brendan Smith in the box for interference. That sent Detroit off the ice after the opening frame with a 2-1 edge.

Stajan knotted the game up at two aside 6:03 into the second stanza, streaking down the left wing and blasting a slap shot off the far post and in. And 7:07 later, Hudler gave the Flames their first lead of the evening.

Entering the game, Calgary possessed a record of 15-1-0 when leading after two periods.

And 1:50 into the final frame, they would add to their chances to go 16-1-0, as Raymond potted an insurance marker to make it 4-2.

With Kris Russell in the box for hooking late, Babcock pulled Howard with 3:50 to play in the third period, continuing the trend of coaches pulling their netminders earlier and earlier, but to no avail, as Hudler added an empty-netter to cap the game off at 5-2 in favor of Calgary.

“Overall, I thought we did a lot of good things,” defenseman Niklas Kronwall said. “We had some defensive breakdowns, obviously, but I thought we had a lot of energy, we got pucks deep most of the time and we spent a lot of time in their zone. We had good chances, especially in the second I thought we did a good job of staying inside, but again, we’ve got to do a way better job defensively.”

Detroit heads to Boston to face the struggling Bruins in a Sunday afternoon matinee before hosting the Edmonton Oilers Monday evening.