Red Wings Beat Flames for Road Trip Sweep

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Calgary Flames 4-1 Thursday night, completing the team’s first sweep of a road trip through western Canada since the Flames moved to Calgary from Atlanta for the 1980-81 season.

Goaltender Chris Osgood led the team to the three wins in Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary, allowing just four goals on the trip.

The final goal of that set was the first goal of Thursday’s matchup.

At 5:28 of the first period, Jarome Iginla beat Nicklas Lidstrom to the puck as it came off the right wing boards in the Detroit end. Iginla turned a rush with Alex Tanguay into a two-on-one and drew in Brian Rafalski and Osgood before passing over to Tanguay to put into the open net.

Jiri Hudler got the Red Wings on the board at the 9:11 mark with a power play goal and Henrik Zetterberg’s first of two goals put Detroit out front just 1:33 later.

Hudler’s goal came off tic-tac-toe passing from Mikael Samuelsson and Brett Lebda. Samuelsson sent the puck along the blue line to Lebda at the left point, who moved it down to the right circle for a one-timer by Hudler past goalie Miikka Kiprusoff.

Zetterberg scored on a bouncing puck one-timer from the left circle, set up when Pavel Datsyuk grabbed the rebound of a blast by Lidstrom and shoveled it on to Zetterberg.

Dan Cleary added to the Red Wings’ lead 5:24 into the second. The rebound of a Lidstrom shot was left sitting at the top of the crease and Cleary jumped in from the top of the left circle to grab it. Moving to the right, he waited for Kiprusoff to be out of position before flipping the puck into the net.

Zetterberg rounded out the game’s scoring with a power play goal with 6:42 remaining in the game, whipping the rebound of a Datsyuk shot past Kiprusoff with Tomas Holmstrom providing a screen.

Detroit’s two power play goals were scored on three chances with the extra attacker. Calgary was held without a goal on their seven power play tries, including 38 seconds of a five-on-three.

Osgood stopped 26 of the 27 Calgary shots en route to the win. Kiprusoff made 22 saves on 26 Detroit chances.

Zetterberg’s goals extended his point-scoring streak to fourteen games since the start of the season. That mark ties the Red Wings’ franchise record for point-scoring streak to start a season.

He’ll look to extend the streak next Wednesday when the Red Wings return home to host the Nashville Predators.

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Johan Franzen left the game and did not return after taking a puck to the face… The Red Wings were still without Niklas Kronwall, who sat out with a sore groin.