The Detroit Red Wings came into Wednesday night’s matchup against the Calgary Flames at Little Caesars Arena securing five out of a possible eight points during their past four games. The Flames walloped the Red Wings 6-3 on Nov. 9, but it was the Red Wings who did the thrashing Wednesday in an 8-2 win.

The Detroit Red Wings got a rare first goal, as Dylan Larkin tied up Mark Jankowski along the boards, allowing Andreas Athanasiou to steal the puck.

Athanasiou attempted to get the puck over to Tomas Tatar on the 2 on 1, but TJ Brodie accidentally redirected his pass through the legs of Eddie Lack to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead about five minutes into the game.

About two minutes later, a loose puck squirted out to Nyquist’s stick in the slot, and the Swede cashed in, giving the Red Wings a 2-0 lead.

Nice work by Henrik Zetterberg and Anthony Mantha to stick lift two Flames defenders so the puck could get to Nyquist.

About a minute later, the goal-scoring fest continued, as Micheal Ferland got a couple whacks at a loose puck to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Later in the period, the Red Wings cashed in on the power play. Athanasiou faked a shot and made a nice shot pass to Mantha, who tipped the pass and collected the rebound to score his ninth goal of the season.

Less than two minutes later, on the penalty kill, Dylan Larkin toe-dragged around Brodie and wristed a shot past Lack for his third of the season.

According to Fox Sports Detroit, it was the Red Wings’ first four-goal period since Oct. 31, 2014, in a 5-2 win against the Los Angeles Kings.

About five minutes into the second period, Mantha recorded his second power-play goal of the game, again tipping an Athanasiou pass. Lack was pulled after allowing the fifth goal on 15 shots against.

At the 12:34 mark of the second, Johnny Gaudreau cut the deficit to 5-2 with a nice wrister that beat Jimmy Howard.

Late in the second period, Larkin led Justin Abdelkader with a stretch pass off the end boards. Abdelkader picked up the loose puck and beat Jon Gillies to take a 6-2 lead.

Late in the third period, on a 5 on 3, Athanasiou converted from in tight to give the Red Wings a 7-2 lead.

Still on a power play, Glendening picked up a rebound off a Xavier Ouellet shot and scored the Red Wings’ eighth goal.

The game started evenly, as the teams traded shot attempts. Calgary had a 25-19 lead in shot attempts (13-12 at 5 on 5) after one period and a 12-11 lead in shots on goal.

In the second period, with a 4-1 lead, the Red Wings sat back a bit, opting to protect the lead, and the Flames were happy to oblige, outattemping the Red Wings 24-12 in the second period to take a 49-31 lead (34-22 at 5 on 5).

The third period was much of the same as the second. The Red Wings were content to sit on their lead, and the Flames came out firing. The Red Wings had a five-minute power play and a 5 on 3 near the end of the third period, but the Flames still outshot the Red Wings 15-14 (12-9 at 5 on 5) to outshoot the Red Wings 64-45 for the game (46-31 at 5 on 5).

The Red Wings converted on 4 of 7 power plays and killed 4 of 5 penalties, adding a short-handed goal.

Tonight’s Motor City MVP is Mantha for scoring two power-play goals and adding an assist on the Nyquist goal. He leads the team with 10 goals and 19 points in 19 games.

Mantha is shooting 20.4 percent, so while it’s nice to see Mantha produce offensively, a regression seems likely.

The Red Wings host the Buffalo Sabres on Friday before facing the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena.

Game time on Friday is 7:30 p.m. and you can catch the game on Fox Sports Detroit. As always, Brock Seguin will have the pre-game report early Friday afternoon on WingsNation.com.