CALGARY — Dylan Larkin scored his 23rd goal and Cam Talbot made 33 saves to lead the streaking Detroit Red Wings to a 3-1 victory over the Calgary Flames, their fifth win in a row.
Simon Edvinsson and Andrew Copp, with an empty-netter, also scored for Detroit (26-21-5). The Red Wings are now only one point behind the Tampa Bay Lightning, who occupy the second wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
Todd McLellan improves to 13-4-1 since being named head coach on Dec. 26.
Nazem Kadri scored for Calgary (25-19-7). The Flames remain one point up on the Vancouver Canucks for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Talbot continues his roll between the pipes. The former-Flame has won three straight and nine of his last 10 decisions. He's 15-10-2 on the season.
Starting for the 11th time in the last 13 games, rookie Dustin Wolf had 22 stops for Calgary. He falls to 19-9-2.
TAKEAWAYS
Red Wings: Thirty-one-year-old Dominik Shine assisted on Larkin's opening goal at 8:26 of the first period for his first NHL point. In comes in his third career game after making his NHL debut on Monday. The undrafted Detroit native has been playing with Grand Rapids (AHL) since 2016-17 having logged 462 games for the Griffins. He’s the oldest Red Wings player to make his NHL debut since Vaclav Nedomansky (33) in 1977.
Flames: New forwards Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee made their debuts after being acquired from the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday. Farabee played right wing on a line with Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau. Frost centred a line with Yegor Sharangovich and Martin Pospisil. Neither hit the scoresheet though as Calgary's offensive struggles continued. They're 29th in the NHL with 135 goals for.
KEY MOMENT
The game was penalty-free into the third period when Detroit's Marco Kasper was whistled for tripping. The Red Wings penalty kill is last in the NHL and Calgary took advantage with Kadri breaking Talbot's shutout at 8:34. However, when Kadri drew a second Wings penalty two minutes later, Detroit got the critical kill it needed and maintained its one-goal lead.
KEY STAT
After going 15 games without a goal, Larkin has heated up lately scoring 11 times in his last 16 games and is on pace to score 36 goals, which would eclipse his career-high of 33 set last season.
UP NEXT
Red Wings: Visit the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday.
Flames: Visit the Seattle Kraken on Sunday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 1, 2025.
Darren Haynes, The Canadian Press
