Red Wings 5 Flames 4 (SO)
CALGARY — Brian Rafalski scored his first two goals of the season while Todd Bertuzzi registered the only goal of the shootout as the Detroit Red Wings rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames on Friday night.
Going against his former teammate Miikka Kiprusoff, Bertuzzi beat the all-star goaltender with a nifty deke to his backhand.
Jimmy Howard made shootout stops against Alex Tanguay and Nicklas Hagman. On Calgary’s final chance to tie the shootout, Rene Bourque missed the net.
It was a stunning turn of events for Bertuzzi, who spent the final 90 seconds of overtime in the penalty box with the Flames pressing for the winning goal.
But, Calgary could not solve Howard, who was shaky earlier in the game. Howard’s best stop in the 4-on-3 came when he scrambled across the crease to get his blocker on Jarome Iginla’s shot.
Howard finished with 35 saves, including six in overtime.
Darren Helm and Patrick Eaves also scored for Detroit (26-10-5). The Red Wings immediately head to Vancouver for a showdown Saturday night at Rogers Arena against the red-hot Canucks.
Curtis Glencross had two goals and an assist for Calgary (18-20-4). Iginla and Anton Babchuk had the others. Babchuk added two assists for his first multi-point game since being acquired in November from the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Flames are next in action Tuesday when they begin a three-game Eastern road trip in Carolina.
Calgary was playing its first game of the second half of their season. Sitting second-last in the Western Conference, they need to go on a tremendous roll in the second half if they’re going to avoid missing the playoffs for a second consecutive year.
Glencross entered the game stuck in a massive slump with just one assist in his previous 17 contests. During that stretch he’d been a healthy scratch for two games.
He snapped out of the slump in a big way with two goals and an assist — before the game was 22 minutes old.
Trailing 4-2, Detroit began its comeback when Eaves fired a Jiri Hudler pass behind Kiprusoff with 18 seconds left in the second.
That would turn out to be a big goal for Detroit, who tied it 4-4 at 8:16 of the third on a long wrist shot by Rafalski which eluded Kiprusoff.
Rafalski’s second of the night was similar to his first, a long rising wrist shot from 50 feet out that Kiprusoff just missed.
It was an off night for Kiprusoff, who had 23 saves.
Less than a minute before Rafalski’s tying goal, Calgary missed a great chance to go ahead by two goals when Olli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay neatly passed the puck back and forth deep in the Red Wings zone before Jokinen put a shot off the post.
Both goaltenders struggled throughout the night.
On Glencross’ opening goal at 8:43, the Flames winger did not get much on his close-in shot but it still squeezed through Howard’s pads.
Miikka Kiprusoff didn’t look any better on Detroit’s tying goal at 15:58 with Helm’s snapshot from a bad angle going in off the inside of his pad.
Iginla restored Calgary’s lead on a backhanded wrap-around with 10 seconds left in the first.
Detroit pulled even again on Rafalski’s first goal of the year as the Red Wings defenceman stepped over the blue-line fired a wrist shot that slightly deflected off Flames defenceman Mark Giordano and fooled Kiprusoff.
Detroit defenceman Brad Stuart left the game halfway through the third and did not return. He got bowled over by Tom Kostopoulos right beside the Red Wings net and when the training staff finally helped him to his feet, a giant pool of blood was left behind.
Notes: Detroit C Valtteri Filppula (groin) did not play... Calgary RW Ales Kotalik took a turn as a healthy scratch. Kotalik has one goal and no assists in 14 games... Rafalski played in his 800th NHL game while Kostopoulos played in NHL game No. 500... The five-game road trip Detroit is on is the first of two road trips of that length for the Red Wings. The other is Feb. 26 — Mar. 5... Calgary RW Tim Jackman’s five-game point streak (three goals, three assists) came to an end... Detroit has surrendered three or more goals in 10 of its last 11 games.