Red Wings win fight night, Flames in 8-2 rout

Gustav Nyquist #14 of the Detroit Red Wings celebrates his first period goal with teammates while playing the Calgary Flames at Little Caesars Arena on November 15, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Detroit used Calgary’s missing piece in net to their advantage at Little Caesars Arena Wednesday night. The Red Wings dominated against both of the Flames backup goaltenders to win 8-2 snapping a three game slide in the standings. Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou scored two on the night that allowed them plenty of momentum to achieve victory during what finished as a free for all brawl in the final minutes of the game. The last time Detroit scored eight goals was four years ago against the Vancouver Canucks

Detroit’s three game losing streak had to be brought to an end after losing a very tough one to Columbus at home Saturday. They had all the time to prepare against Calgary who have scored 13 goals including the six against the Red Wings a week ago. Their chances increased with Mike Smith out of net for the Flames after getting injured against the Blues. It gave Detroit a chance to make something happen of their lengthy homestand and bring energy into LCA.

They got started with plenty of work in the Calgary zone shooting pucks at the net where Eddie Lack stood for Smith. While it took time to make the first move, Detroit earned to lead the game with an unassisted goal from Andreas Athanasiou notching his third of the season. The turnover got to Athanasiou where he shot the puck that went off TJ Brodie’s stick and into the net. The Red Wings made it 2-0 just 1:50 later with their first line crisscrossing the puck around. It got to Gustav Nyquist who take a centering shot on lack for his sixth.

The Flames had a big hole to deal with and got a chance with the first man advantage going their way. With a lot of slapping sticks right at goaltender Jimmy Howard, the Flames made it happen, getting the puck to slide behind Howard which gave Kris Versteeg the goal after officials checked the video to confirm that the goal was good. After they got on the board, both teams were produced power plays for one another lead to a pair that saw an increase of shots.

Calgary handed Detroit a second chance and they got it done with a well-played strategy on the faceoff near Lack’s right-hand side. A couple of passes finished with Mantha scoring his ninth of the year and a return of their two-goal margin. They gave Calgary a bad penalty but made it theirs to conduct with a big steal while shorthanded. Dylan Larkin and Luke Glendening took off where Larkin faked a shot before going top shelf above Lack for his third. It was the fifth goal in 17 minutes and the last as the Red Wings held off the Flames from getting any more outshooting them 12-11. It was the first time since Halloween against the Los Angeles Kings that Detroit scored four goals.

Detroit remained firm with their mission to secure a win by any means. It got better as Mantha got his second of the night with a side shot through Lack that came 4:27 into the second. His night was over as he was immediately replaced by Jon Gillies who came in to attempt to try and bring an end to the onslaught. The team worked to turn things around and subsided the shots that Detroit got on goal. They took the lead with eight minutes left on shots at Howard with Johnny Gaudreau scoring a well fired puck that threaded through a defender and the Detroit goaltender for his eighth on the year.

Detroit knew that letting off the Flames wasn’t something they wanted to happen and held in the final minutes that allowed them Gaudreau’s lone goal. Before the horn sounded, Detroit added their sixth of the night with a shot from Dylan Larkin that bounced off the boards and came to Justin Abdelkader scoring his third. Though they were outshot 10-8, the Red Wings had a massive gap between themselves and Calgary with just twenty minutes left.

Calgary was still hunting to make the miraculous push back to level the score but they had time and the Red Wings working against them. Detroit stopped their scoring chances near Howard clearing the puck away and delivering some serious physical strength. It led to the eruption of nerves with Detroit’s Luke Witkowski getting at Brett Kulak with a big open ice hit. They agreed to go at it which sent them to the bench for fighting. As Witkowski was being led to the bench to take off for the night, Matt Tkachuk gave Witkowski a tap on the back of his leg.

Witkowski blew up and started a massive fight between the teams that led to Anthony Mantha fighting with Travis Hamonic fighting inside the Detroit bench. Jimmy Howard even got into it which brought Gillies in to fight with him as well. When it was all said and done, Michael Backlund, Tkachuk and Hamonic all took game misconducts. Before the Red Wings got to a power play, Backlund took an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that took him out of the game handing a two-man advantage. Athanasiou scored an easy goal for his second goal as well while Mantha, Howard and Witkowski earned game misconducts.

It was the first time since 2015 against the Dallas Stars that the Red Wings notched this many goals. They made it eight with 1:23 left with Luke Glendening scoring on a second rebound for the team’s third on four chances with the man advantage. There was still hockey to play before the game could official be done and with 4.3 seconds left in regulation, Sam Bennett and Jonathan Ericsson got into it after Bennett tripped up Tomas Tatar. It was the last scuffle that brought the game to an end as a total of 121 penalty minutes were taken with the Flames earning 67 of them.

The comfortable win was what Detroit wanted but their 54 penalties in sixty minutes showed that they were not going to let the Flames dictate their frustrations without consequences. It was a solid win to avenge last week’s loss to them and gained two points to move forward at home. They’ll prep for a Friday night match against the Buffalo Sabres.