The Detroit Red Wings are enjoying a two-game winning streak and a run of five games garnering points but are well aware they must not take a step back when they continue their road trip Wednesday at the Calgary Flames.
The Red Wings, who are coming off Monday’s 4-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks, have found themselves back among the collection of clubs vying for top spot in the Atlantic Division.
“We’re kind of getting into a rhythm here,” said goaltender John Gibson, who posted his first shutout of the season in Vancouver. “Obviously, we’re only halfway through (this road trip) and have three big ones left, but just kind of build off this one and take it into the back-to-back coming up.”
The Red Wings are three matchups into a six-game road swing that takes them to Edmonton the night after visiting Calgary. Proving how wild the standings are right now, they went from outside a playoff position to first place in the Atlantic by beating the Canucks.
Continuing the trend in which Detroit has cobbled together a 3-0-2 run will require more of what transpired in Vancouver.
While Gibson, acquired in the offseason to solidify the Red Wings between the pipes, made 39 saves, James van Riemsdyk continued showing his hot hand by scoring for a fourth consecutive game. Captain Dylan Larkin added a goal and the club received depth-player scoring from Andrew Copp and Nate Danielson.
“We’re happy we got the secondary scoring,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We can’t keep relying on three or four guys. When they’re having dry nights, somebody else has to pick up the slack.”
The Flames are looking to continue their climb up from the league’s basement. Thanks to a 7-2-1 run capped with a 7-4 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Monday, they are only a handful of points outside a playoff position.
“I think it’s a really big thing we take a ‘W’ and win three games in a row,” said forward Yegor Sharangovich, who scored twice in a three-point game against Buffalo. “Now we have fun, everyone is smiling and we need to just keep going.”
Calgary sat last in the league less than a week ago and had been there for the majority of the first eight weeks of the season. However, the Flames won the first three outings of a four-game homestand and posted a 5-0-1 mark in their last half-dozen clashes at the Saddledome.
Just like the Red Wings, the Flames have no time to fall off the track.
When asked after Tuesday’s practice whether he has given his squad a goal or mile marker to focus on, coach Ryan Huska replied, “We have to catch the team in front of us right now. The focus is to end this homestand the right way and try to make it 4-for-4 if we can.”
Although the seven goals against the Sabres was a season high for Calgary, which is tied with Seattle as the league’s lowest scoring club on a per-game basis, Huska wanted to ensure his players were not thinking that performance was the key to success.
“Some of the games we played when we weren’t winning were better than some of the ones we’ve played over the last little bit — the last couple of games in particular,” Huska said.
–Field Level Media
