Wounded Wings hold off Flames for 2-1 win

The Detroit Red Wings were without defensemen Chris Chelios and Jason Woolley but were still able to close out their Western Canada road trip with a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames Thursday night.

Pavel Datsyuk assisted on both Red Wings goals and callup Anders Myrvold filled in admirably for the injured Chelios as Detroit held of a third period push by the Flames.

Ray Whitney opened the game’s scoring with 3:24 left in the first period. The Flames attempted an outlet pass just as a penalty to Datsyuk expired. Datsyuk stepped out of the box and moved into the high slot, picking off the pass. He got the puck to Henrik Zetterberg, who skated through the left faceoff circle and faked the shot before passing to Whitney, who was all alone at the edge of the crease to tip the puck into the net.

Steve Thomas scored the only goal of the second period with 4:13 remaining in the middle frame. Datsyuk again stole the puck at the blue line and sent it down to Brett Hull in the slot. Hull tipped it to Thomas who skated in on Calgary goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and rifled a shot over his shoulder.

Calgary’s Chuk Kobasew scored the Flames’ lone goal with 7:51 remaining in the game. Kobasew got the puck at the right point and had a clear lane to the goal. He stempt up into the faceoff circle and blasted a shot by Detroit netminder Manny Legace.

The Flames had a 6-on-4 manpower advantage in the games closing seconds with Kiprusoff on the bench and Detroit’s Steve Yzerman in the penalty box but were unable to tie the game.

Legace stopped 33 of the 34 shots he faced in net for the Red Wings, while Kiprusoff stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced manning the Calgary crease.

The Red Wings are next in action on Sunday when they play their only game of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers.

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Chris Chelios took the pre-game skate but was unable to play… Jason Woolley was retroactively placed on the injured reserve to make room for Myrvold. Woolley is eligable to return for Sunday’s game against Philadelphia.