The Detroit Red Wings swept Alberta via a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, and the 4-games-in-6-nights swing gets no easier as the Red Wings head to Vancouver to play the reinforced Canucks on Sunday night (8 PM EST start on FanDuel SportsNet Detroit/Sportsnet Pacific/TVA Sports/97.1 FM).
But the Red Wings have something to play for. They’ve won 5 straight games, they sit 1 point behind the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning, and 2 behind the Columbus Blue Jackets, who own the Eastern Conference’s first Wild Card spot.
The problem, of course, is that the Senators, Blue Jackets, Bruins, Lightning, Islanders and Canadiens all keep winning, too, so the Red Wings need to do the best they can to mine points out of this ugly 4-in-6 trip in order to return home at the Four Nations break within sight of a playoff spot.
But if the road leads uphill, you climb it, and that’s where the Red Wings are at this morning–climbing uphill.
As far as the Calgary Flames were concerned, starting the first half of their own back-to-back set of games (they play the Kraken in Seattle this evening) and debuting trade acquisitions Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, they were, well…Entitled to a certain storyline, as they told the Calgary Sun’s Wes Gilbertson:
The spotlight was on the Calgary Flames’ new faces. Turns out, an old friend stole the show.
Cam Talbot, now several years removed from his own stint at the Saddledome, delivered a 33-save performance Saturday against his former squad, backstopping the Detroit Red Wings to a 3-1 victory and spoiling the debuts for Flames trade acquisitions Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost.
“I think we probably deserved to win,” said Flames centre Nazem Kadri.
Talbot, on the fifth anniversary of his Battle of Alberta scrap with Mike Smith, had other plans.
Kadri had the lone lamp-lighting for the locals, firing through Blake Coleman’s screen for a power-play marker in the third.
Dylan Larkin and Simon Edvinsson notched early goals for the Red Wings, and Andrew Copp sealed it with a late empty-netter.
While Farabee and Frost are likely running on fumes already, any R & R will have to wait as the Flames hustled after the final buzzer to catch a flight to Seattle for Sunday’s showdown with the Kraken.
“I thought the fans were great and everyone in the room was so great to Joel and I and made us feel welcome, and it felt like we could just go play our game,” Frost said after his first twirl in the Flaming C. “Not the result we wanted but for me personally, it’s nice to get the first one out of the way and hopefully build off that and be better for (Sunday).”
Kadri continued while speaking with NHL.com’s Aaron Vickers…
“I think we probably deserved to win, I’d say,” Kadri said. “I really liked most of our game. Obviously a couple breakdowns and they’re an opportunistic team, a team that’s got talent on their roster, and they made us pay. For the most part I think we were pretty good tonight.”
Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee each made his Calgary debut after being acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday for forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier, a second-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and a seventh-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft. Frost had three shots in 17:37 of ice time, and Farabee had one hit in 18:01.
“I liked them both,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “I thought they did a good job. It’s been a long couple days for them and I thought they did a good job. We threw them pretty much into every situation and I thought both guys handled it well.”
Larkin shot through MacKenzie Weegar‘s legs and over Wolf’s left pad and under his glove to put Detroit up 1-0 at 8:27.
“He just kind of pulls everyone along with him,” Talbot said. “You see (Lucas) Raymond elevate his game and a couple other guys, too… you put Marco Kasper in that category as well. He’s just been dragging everyone into the fight and everybody’s been following.”
Dominik Shine earned an assist on Larkin’s goal for his first NHL point in his third NHL game. Shine, 31, signed a two-year, two-way contract with the Red Wings on Jan. 27 after spending parts of nine seasons with Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League, Detroit’s minor league affiliate.
“I was done,” Shine said. “I was done playing, and to be here is amazing. Obviously there’s doubt. You doubt yourself. ‘What am I doing? Am I going to keep playing in the minors? Am I going to do this forever?’ So, I mean, to get that point means the world to me.”
Talbot gave a nod to his previous employer before offering praise to his current teammates:
“It’s nice to see we can win in a lot of different ways,” Talbot said. “Sometimes you pull them out when you don’t have your best. Give them a lot of credit. They came out hard. We knew they were going to. This is a tough building, and they just made that trade so you know those new guys were going to come out here flying. Give our guys credit. We weathered the storm at the beginning and got a couple big goals and locked it down from there.”
As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff noted, the Red Wings’ goaltender got the Hockey Night in Canada towel for good reason…
Earlier in the season, Saturday’s 3-1 road victory over the Calgary Flames was probably a game that the Detroit Red Wings would’ve lost.
Detroit was outshot 34-24. At times, the Red Wings were hemmed in their own zone, overwhelmed by the Calgary forecheck. Like good teams do, they persevered and found a way to come through with their fifth straight victory.
“I think it’s just how cohesive we are as a unit right now – in the D zone, in the neutral zone, in the offensive zone,” explained Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot to Hockey Night In Canada. “There’s not a whole lot of holes in our game right now. We’re tightening up when we need to, weathering the storm and potting some big goals when we need to. We’re winning a bunch of different ways now, which is a good sign.”
Talbot reiterated his points of emphasis to the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan…
“We’ve been gutting out a lot of wins lately and it’s nice to see we can win in a lot of different ways,” said Talbot. “They came out hard and we knew they were going to. It’s a tough building to play in and they made a trade (Friday), so you knew they would come out flying and give our guys credit, we weathered the storm at the beginning and got a couple of goals and locked it down.”
And Kulfan retold the game’s early narrative…
Larkin scored his 23rd goal at 8:27 of the first period. Christian Fischer found Larkin entering into the play and passed to Larkin, who snapped a shot past goalie Dustin Wolf. Dominik Shine earned his first NHL point on the play keeping the puck in the zone. In his third NHL game this week, Shine (Pinckney) continues to make an impression with his energy on the fourth line.
“It means the world,” said Shine of the point, and victory. “We wanted to get a good start, so I was pumped to be on the ice for the first one (goal) and to get a point is awesome. We started a little slow but Larks buried that one and we kind of rolled from there. We fought them off the rest of the way. It’s a tough place to play.”
Edvinsson made it 2-0 with just 46 seconds left in the first period. Edvinsson skated to near the dot and beat Wolf for his fifth goal.
“Great sense of timing, of joining the rush,” [Red Wings coach Todd] McLellan said. “A lot of defensemen can do that but they don’t arrive in time. They’re too eary or too late. He found a sweet spot to receive the puck and made the goaltender work and squeaked it by him.”
As you might expect, coach McLellan was less than thrilled by the Red Wings’ shaky start…
“In the first five minutes there were opportunities to establish our three-foot boundaries, where loose pucks and body position and quick feet, and I didn’t think we did that, the red team (Calgary) did it better than we did,” McLellan said. “But we talked about it between periods and the second period we received the game a little bit, so we dealt with that, and in the third we came out and we were much better than the beginning of the first two periods.”
But all turned out well…
“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Talbot said. “We can win 2-1 games, 1-0 games, 5-2 games, we’re winning in a whole lot of different ways, and that’s what good teams do this time of year. We’re playing as good as anybody in the league right now, so we’re feeling pretty good.”
As the Wings also told DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills:
McLellan on Talbot’s night in net
“What more can I say? We needed Alex [Lyon] in Edmonton, and we needed Cam in Calgary. We’re going to need whoever we play tomorrow in Vancouver. It’s just the way our team is built right now and it’s how we play.”
Talbot on Shine’s first NHL point and his recent play
“It’s such a feel-good story. He never wanted to play anywhere else but Grand Rapids, and to get an opportunity to come up here and don the Winged Wheel I know meant a lot to him. For us to see how excited he was and for how much hard work he’s put in to get to this point, you can see how much it means to him. We’re just trying to feed off that energy because it’s fun to watch.”
Shine on how Detroit battled its way to a win on Saturday
“I thought we started a little slow. Larks buried that one, and I thought we kind of rolled there. We fought them off the rest of the way. It’s a tough place to play, so we did a good job.”
Shine on the younger skaters contributing to the club’s success
“I’ve seen them all grow into the players that they are. They all work hard. They’re all great dudes. I love them, so I’m just so happy for them.”
Here are some FYIs from the AP’s recap:
Dylan Larkin scored his 23rd goal and Cam Talbot made 33 saves to lead the streaking Detroit Red Wings to a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames, their fifth win in a row.
Simon Edvinsson and Andrew Copp, with an empty-netter, also scored for Detroit (26-21-5). The Red Wings are now only one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, who occupy the second wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
Todd McLellan improves to 13-4-1 since being named head coach on Dec. 26.
Nazem Kadri scored for Calgary (25-19-7). The Flames remain one point up on the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Talbot continues his roll between the pipes. The former-Flame has won three straight and nine of his last 10 decisions. He’s 15-10-2 on the season.
…
KEY STAT
After going 15 games without a goal, Larkin has heated up lately scoring 11 times in his last 16 games and is on pace to score 36 goals, which would eclipse his career-high of 33 set last season.
Multimedia:
Highlights: Sportsnet posted a 10:04 highlight clip:
NHL.com posted a 9:55 highlight clip:
Post-game: The Flames’ website posted clips of Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Nazem Kadri and coach Ryan Huska’s post-game comments, as well as a 24-minute post-game report:
Cam Talbot got the post-game Hockey Night in Canada towel from Scott Oake:
"The results speak for themselves with our group here."
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 2, 2025
Cam Talbot speaks with @ScottOake after a 33-save win for the Red Wings. pic.twitter.com/vBQ7Q5eUkl
And the Red Wings posted a 7:26 clip of Dominik Shine, Talbot and coach Todd McLellan’s post-game comments:
Photos: The Free Press posted a 12-image gallery;
The Detroit News posted a 4-image gallery;
The Flames’ website posted a 52-image gallery.
Statistics: Here are the Game Summary and Event Summary:
