Flames Conked
Red Wings 5 Flames 2
CALGARY — Jiri Hudler has had a hot hand lately as the Detroit Red Wings continued their fine play with a 5-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
Hudler notched the game-winning goal and had an assist as the Wings won their fifth straight game to improve their record to 14-2-3.
“It’s a bit of luck,” said Hudler, who jumped off the bench as the extra attacker and fired a feed from Henrik Zetterberg into the top corner over Calgary goalie Miikka Kiprusoff’s outstretched glove at 11:21 of the third. “It was a great pass. I had nothing else to do, so I just shot the puck and tried to hit the net.”
Marian Hossa later added an empty net goal to give him a team-leading 11 goals and 13 assists on the season. After the game, Hossa credited Hudler for sparking the team.
“Huds is hot right now,” said Hossa of his Czech teammate who has put up four goals and two assist in the past three contests. “It seems like there was a little bit of an opening on his goal and he shot it right in the top corner. That was a huge goal by him.”
Kirk Maltby scored the lone goal of the first period and Brett Lebda counted his first of the season in the second to give the Red Wings a 2-0 lead. Defenceman Andreas Lilja set up both of the goals, while Pavel Datsyuk added an insurance marker after Hudler’s heroics.
Detroit goalie Ty Conklin made 31 saves to improve his record to 6-1.
“Conklin gave us a good effort tonight,” said Detroit coach Mike Babcock, whose team is now 10-1-1 on the road and 9-0-3 when leading after two periods. “We know how to win. We’ve been winning for a while here and we’re determined. When you get contributions from lots of people, you’re better.”
The Red Wings haven’t lost in regulation yet in November going 7-0-1 so far with four more games remaining in the month.
Curtis Glencross pulled Calgary (11-9-1) within one in the middle frame and then drew an assist on defenceman Mark Giordano’s game-tying goal during a third-period power play for the Flames.
“They buried their chances and we obviously didn’t bury ours,” Glencross said.
For the Flames, the loss ended their modest two-game winning streak.
“It’s a tough one because for a lot of the night we did a lot of good things and we fought our way back,” said Calgary captain Jarome Iginla.
The Red Wings opened the scoring at 4:26 of the first period when Maltby tipped a pass from Lilja just inside the left post behind Kiprusoff.
The Flames had a great chance to tie the game in the second but Eric Nystrom’s shot from the slot got past Conklin before hitting linemate Matthew Lombardi to stay out of the net.
At 11:46 of the middle frame, Lebda put the Wings up 2-0 when he snapped an innocent-looking shot from the top of the faceoff circle that beat Kiprusoff to the far side just over his right pad.
Just 36 seconds later, Glencross pulled the Flames to within a goal when he squeaked close-in shot just under Conklin’s left arm and into the net.
“I just tried to get as tight to the post as I could and he got it between my arm, but that didn’t come back to bite us,” Conklin said.
In the third, the Flames continued to press for the tying goal when Giordano wired a drop pass from Iginla into the top corner, blocker side past Conklin to tie the game.
“We stuck with it and found a way to tie it up in the third and to keep some pressure,” Iginla said. “Unfortunately, they are a very good team and they know how to hang in. When they are getting pushed they know how to hang in there and capitalize which they did tonight.”
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