Dominik Kubalik scored two goals, Tyler Bertuzzi had a goal and two assists and the Detroit Red Wings made it a season-high five straight wins, defeating the Calgary Flames 5-2 on Thursday.
Robby Fabbri and Pius Suter added the others for Detroit (26-20-8), which moved within two points of the Washington Capitals and the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Red Wings also hold three games in hand.
Dylan Larkin had three assists to extend his point streak to six games (six goals, six assists).
Elias Lindholm and Dillon Dube replied for Calgary (25-19-11). The loss knocked the Flames out of the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, which now belongs to the Minnesota Wild.
Magnus Hellberg made 33 saves for the visitors.
At the other end, Dan Vladar stopped 19-of-24 shots. On the heels of a 13-game points streak (10-0-3), Vladar has lost back-to-back games in regulation with both coming against Detroit.
Tied 2-2 in the second period, Kubalik scored his second at 15:21 thanks to some hard work behind the goal from Bertuzzi.
Battling Nazem Kadri for a loose puck, Bertuzzi sent the puck into the slot as he was getting clipped in the face by Kadri’s stick. While Bertuzzi was down and grabbing his face behind the net, Larkin zipped a cross-ice pass to Kubalik who fired it past Vladar.
Bertuzzi made it 4-2 just over three minutes later on the man advantage when he neatly steered in Fabbri’s centring pass for his third of the season. Bertuzzi’s three-point game was a season best for the right-winger who has been limited to 23 games due to injuries.
Calgary opened the scoring on Lindholm’s short-handed goal at 15:22 of the first period that was set up by Mikael Backlund.
The Flames only lead of the night was short-lived with Detroit tying it at 18:59. Bertuzzi got the puck out to Kubalik in the slot and his shot eluded Vladar after it partially deflected off the glove of Flames defenceman Michael Stone.
Stone also factored into Detroit going ahead 2-1 as his cross-checking penalty at 2:14 of the second put the Red Wings on the power play. Fabbri picked the top corner after a setup from Larkin 13 seconds later.
The Flames evened the game at 9:03 of the middle frame when Dube got loose down the right wing and scored his 16th goal of the season and fifth in the past three games.
ANDERSSON RETURNS
Calgary welcomed back defenceman Rasmus Andersson to the lineup. The team’s leader in average ice time (24:40) missed three games after he was struck by a car while riding a scooter to dinner a week back when the club was visiting Detroit.
POWER TRIP
Detroit’s power play was sizzling again Thursday. A perfect 3-for-3 over the previous two games, the Red Wings went an efficient 2-for-4 on the man advantage.
UP NEXT
Flames: Play host to the New York Rangers on Saturday night.
Red Wings: Will try for a perfect road trip when they wrap up their four-game excursion out West in Seattle on Saturday.
