Garnering 4 points in their last two away games, Detroit walks into the Saddledome ready to face the last team on their Western Canada tour, the Calgary Flames.

The first half of period 1 was definitely not the start the Wings or the Flames were looking for. Anthony Mantha gets a roughing penalty within the first 5 minutes, which is successfully killed off. However, 4 minutes later, the Flames’ Mark Jankowski scores his first career NHL goal from a mid-air rebound attempt after a Jaromir Jagr shot.

Later on, Detroit it taking a defensive zone faceoff, which the Flames’ Sean Monahan won and passed the puck to an open Johnny Gaudreau, who rips it past Petr Mrazek, making it 2-0 Flames.

The Flames outshot Detroit 15-10 in the 1st.

Both teams came out hungry for the 2nd, racking up 6 goals between both teams.

Micheal Ferland opened up the 2nd period scoring after a horrific giveaway by Jonathan Ericsson, putting the Flames up 3-0.

Sam Bennett will sit for 2 minutes after being called for slashing. Detroit is only on the Power Play for :39 seconds before Marty Frk rockets home his 6th of the season with Anthony Mantha and Dylan Larkin each get helpers.

Matthew Tkachuk knocks the puck out of the air and behind Petr Mrazek with 7:37 left in the 2nd. Mrazek signals to the referee that Tkachuk knocked it in with a high stick. Detroit challenges but after review, the goal stands and the Flames are up 4-1.

With 5 minutes left in the 2nd, Justin Abdelkader and Troy Brouwer drop the gloves in a very unfortunate turn of events for Abdelkader. Not exactly the best way to fire up your team. With both in the box, Frans Nielsen scored his 6th of the season and Anthony Mantha gets his 2nd point of the night (0G, 2A).

A little over 60 seconds later, Jaromir Jagr scores his 1st as a Flames.

With 03.3 seconds left in the 2nd period, Anthony Mantha (1g, 2A tonight) picks up a big rebound and rockets it behind Mike Smith, who may have been screened by his own defender.

The 2nd period ends with the score 5-3 Flames, with Detroit outshooting Calgary 21-10.

The Wings came out strong in the 3rd and were all over the Flames. Unfortunately, they had nothing to show for it as they did not score a goal in the 3rd and gave up an empty netter with 2:23 left in regulation, essentially putting the nail in the 6-3 coffin. It didn’t seem to stop Anthony Mantha who continued his onslaught of shots against Mike Smith. The game ended with Detroit outshooting Calgary 42-34, giving Mrazek an abysmal 0.848 SV% and Mike Smith 0.929 SV%.

The Calgary Flames were steadily the more dominant team the first 40 minutes, but not by much. The last 20 minutes shows just how dominant the Red Wings were in the 3rd. Playing an absolutely possessive game over the Flames. Unfortunately, Mike Smith and the Flames’ defense were stoned every attempt that period, playing an absolutely fantastic period.

Tonight’s Motor City MVP is Anthony Mantha. He scored a goal and had 2 assists for a 3 point night, giving him 16 total points (8G, 8A) in 17 games, just barely under 1 point per game. He was dominant wherever he was on the ice, whether it was in front of the next providing a screen, battling in the corners, his booming shot wailing on Mike Smith, or his playmaking ability.

This is the end of Detroit’s Western Canada road trip, picking up 4 out of a total of 6 possible points. Not bad for a team struggling as of late. The Wings fly back home to rest and wait until Saturday when Sergei Bobrovsky and the Columbus Blue Jackets come into town at 7:00 PM ET.