Reimer stops 38 shots to lead Red Wings to 5-0 win over Flames
CALGARY, Alberta — James Reimer stopped 38 shots to lead the Detroit Red Wings past the Calgary Flames 5-0 on Saturday.
Patrick Kane and Lucas Raymond had a goal and an assist each for the Red Wings, who snapped a two-game losing streak. David Perron, J.T. Compher and Dylan Larkin also scored.
“It’s nice when you contribute to the team,” said Reimer, who recorded the 30th shutout of his 14-year NHL career and second with Detroit this season. “That’s all you want to do. You want to be part of the team and you want to help get to our goal. You just try to be ready whenever your number’s called."
Reimer was also in net when these two teams last met in Detroit on Oct. 22. He stopped 29 shots in a 6-2 Red Wings victory that game.
Jacob Markstrom started in goal for the Flames. But he was pulled at 6:41 of the second period after allowing four goals on 12 shots.
“It was short,” said Markstrom of his disappointing performance. “I saw all four pucks go in. It’s frustrating. You want to be there for the guys and the fans that paid money to come watch us play.”
Dan Vladar then made eight saves in relief for the Flames, who’ve lost three straight games and six of their last seven at home.
“That’s tough,” said Calgary captain Mikael Backlund of his team’s recent woes on home ice. “That’s not acceptable. We want to play well in front of our fans. We want to win games and if we want to be serious about playoffs we’ve got to win games at home.”
The Flames carried the majority of the early play and had a great chance to open the scoring thanks to the efforts of the line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Yegor Sharangovich and Andrei Kuzmenko.
At 12:34 of the opening period, Reimer made a great glove save on Kuzmenko’s slapshot. It came shortly after he turned aside a wrist shot by Huberdeau.
Kane opened the scoring at 14:56, just three seconds into a power play after Calgary rookie Connor Zary was called for high-sticking. Playing the point, Kane blasted a pass from Moritz Seider into the top corner over Markstrom’s blocker.
The Wings made it 2-0 just 61 seconds later. Compher took a pass from Raymond and fired a quick shot that deflected off the shaft of Calgary defenseman Rasmus Andersson’s stick and past Markstrom.
Larkin tapped in a nice cross-crease pass from Kane for another Detroit power-play goal at 5:12 of the second.
Just 89 seconds later, Detroit went up 4-0 after Perron wired a pass from Andrew Copp past Markstrom, who was promptly relieved of his duties by Calgary coach Ryan Huska.
Raymond rounded out the scoring with 4:20 remaining to play.
“We battled hard today and Reims was unbelievable for us,” said Larkin of his team’s bounceback win. “We didn’t have the best start. We were a little bit flat. But our power play got us going. Special teams and goaltending and pretty good defensive play was the reason why we were successful today.”
UP NEXT
Red Wings: Visit Seattle on Monday to finish a four-game trip.
Flames: Host Winnipeg on Monday in the third of a four-game trip.