RECAP: Detroit’s six-game point streak ends with 4-1 loss in Calgary

CALGARY – Coming up short in regulation loss for the first time in 15 days and seeing their six-game point streak halted, the Detroit Red Wings couldn’t generate enough offense in a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome on Saturday night.

“I just never really felt like we got traction in the game,” Andrew Copp said. “We had some good shifts, maybe a couple good minutes at a time, but never really kind of fully got in control of the game and shift after shift where we were doing all the right things. So, some little mistakes that kind of cost us shifts where it was a good shift then something happens and all of a sudden, we’re in our own zone or we’re taking a penalty… It wasn’t our best night, for sure. We have one more game to salvage the road trip.”

Netminder John Gibson stopped 21 shots for the Red Wings (4-4-3; 11 points), who went 0-for-2 on the power play and 0-for-2 on the penalty kill. Earning his third win in as many tries for the Flames (4-6-0; 8 points) was goaltender Devin Cooley, who made 28 saves.

“They were obviously better than us in multiple areas, like the special teams alone,” Detroit head coach Todd McLellan said. “I thought it was one of our poorer nights, as far as execution goes.”

Although the Red Wings outshot the Flames 10-8 and led 5-2 in high-danger chances in the first period, Joel Farabee’s goal with 2:10 remaining broke the ice and made it 1-0 for the hosts. After Kevin Bahl kept a clearing attempt in at Detroit’s blue line, his pass went to Adam Klapka at the bottom of the left face-off circle and then found its way to a wide-open Farabee in the slot.

“I thought our first was maybe our best period,” McLellan said. “We made a real grave mistake on the first one, but we found our way back into it and found a way to even up the game.”

Andrew Copp’s second goal of the season tied things up not long after the action resumed coming out of the first intermission. The puck, following a face-off win by J.T. Compher, bounced towards Calgary’s net and proved too slippery for Zayne Parekh to control on his stick. Fortunately, Copp had followed it the whole time and managed to slip a backhand past Cooley to make it 1-1 at 2:22.

Emmitt Finnie said he felt Detroit, which ultimately only managed to beat Cooley once, struggled to establish its game in the offensive zone throughout the night.

“I think we had a few plays that we didn’t capitalize on, but for the most part, we were getting one shot, and we weren’t getting it back,” Finnie said. “I don’t think we had nearly enough O-zone time to generate quality chances.”

Only 6:16 later, with the Red Wings on the penalty kill, Gibson was screened by Morgan Frost and couldn’t stop Parekh’s wrist shot from the point that sent the Flames back in front 2-1.

“(Parekh’s) got through from the top,” Copp said. “(He) made a good job of changing the angle…We need to sharpen (the PK) up, for sure.”

Then at 17:04, Ryan Strome tipped Frost’s centering pass into the back of the net to extend their lead to 3-1. That score lasted less than a minute before Matvei Gridin’s power-play goal — Michael Brandsegg-Nygård had been assessed an over-the-glass delay of game penalty that set up the special-teams situation — made it 4-1.

“We extend a shift, we shoot one over the glass,” McLellan said. “Those are the little things our team can’t afford to do. We can’t survive those momentums. We don’t score enough.”

Ben Chiarot and Jake Middleton dropped the gloves at 4:05 of the third period, which ended scoreless and saw the Red Wings outshoot the Flames 9-7.

“They’ve been playing good hockey recently,” Finnie said of the Flames. “We knew that, coming into today, they were feeling themselves and it showed tonight. They were the better team and they came out with the two points.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will try to finish their four-game road trip on a winning note when they play the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Monday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Copp on how they can regroup and what they can work on ahead of Monday’s road-trip finale

“I think play a little bit more connected and be sharper with our passing. The space between us, I feel like we got further and further away from each other in the game. That ends up being played on the outside and not making those 10-foot plays that are quick. You end up playing slow that way. That’s going to be our focus.”

Finnie on how Saturday’s result came to be

“Too many missed passes, way too connected in the D-zone and neutral zone, so we weren’t able to get much offense off that.”