CALGARY, Alberta -- The Detroit Red Wings never led Friday night but rallied from two goals down to beat the Calgary Flames in a shootout, 5-4.
The Flames led 4-2 in the final minute of the second period but Patrick Eaves scored a power play goal from the left faceoff circle with 18 seconds remaining to make it 4-3.
Brian Rafalski's second goal of the night tied the game. At 8:16 of the third period, Rafalski jumped up to hold in the puck at the right point and carried it into the Calgary zone, beating goalie Miikka Kiprusoff with a shot from the boards.
Todd Bertuzzi scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Wings the win.
The Flames had opened the game's scoring at 8:43 of the first, when Curtis Glencross snuck a shot under Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard's pad from right in front.
Darren Helm replied for the Red Wings, slipping a shot from an acute angle between Kiprusoff's pads with 4:02 left in the period.
Jarome Iginla would restore the Calgary lead with only 10 seconds left in the first, beating Howard on a wraparound chance.
Rafalski's first of the night came just 41 seconds into the second, when his shot on a rush deflected off a Calgary defenseman and past Kiprusoff.
Glencross outwaited Howard while cutting across the goal mouth to make it 3-2 28 seconds later. Anton Babchuk's power play goal with 8:27 left in the second wrapped up the Calgary scoring.
Howard finished the night with 35 saves on 39 shots. Kiprusoff stopped 23 of 27 Detroit chances.
The Red Wings are back in action on Saturday night when they visit the Vancouver Canucks.
Notes: At the midway point of the third period the Red Wings lost defenseman Brad Stuart to a broken jaw, suffered on a high hit from Calgary's Tom Kostopoulos. The team says he is out indefinitely.
More injuries! Valtteri Filppula is out with a sore groin. Thankfully, Patrick Eaves is back so no one else gets called up from GR but we've got some goofy-ass lines, according to most of the beat writers. I'll link to the Freep 'cause I usually link to Khan.
That would be Bertuzzi shifted up to the first line, with Franzen dropping down to the second line and shifted to center to replace Filppula. Eaves takes the other wing on the second line with the third and fourth lines untouched.
I like the idea of seeing Eaves on a scoring line but part of me wants to see Tatar get a couple shifts there, too. Just to see what happens.
Defense is the same as it's been and Jimmy Howard gets the start in goal.
Ha! They were just talking about Rafalski approaching the record for most assists to start the season without a goal.
Another weak goal. Crazy.
Patrick Eaves, not even supposed to be on a power play unit, only guy who can do anything out there. Five on three was awful and the second part of the PP didn't look good until that goal.
I was a little upset because this was the first game I have been able to watch for awhile and then there was no Datsyuk or Filppula, but I think the end of the game made up for it ![]()
Is anything going to happen with whoever hit Stuart?
Yeah, I'm okay with that suspension.
For me, the ridiculous thing is the response from Calgary.
"I'm extremely disappointed in the League's ruling as I believe I have not done anything illegal," said Kostopoulos. "I'm sorry that Brad was hurt on the play and I hope he returns to play soon, but it was never my intention to injure him and I definitely did not target the head."
Okay, I can get that he's sorry. But he didn't target the head? It's the only thing he hit! If you didn't target it what were you doing?!
I wish someone would call him out on that comment. Say something like, "So you meant to hit the much larger target of his body and instead missed it completely, instead hitting the small target of his head. Why are you so bad at checking?"
I just don't see how the actions that actually occurred match the statement of not intending to hit the head unless he's incompetent as a hockey player.
Brian Rafalski
Credit: Clark Rasmussen
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