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Red Wings keep Flames winless

Oct 11, 2007 - 3:49 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Detroit Red Wings did not have many chances on the power play, but they made what few they had count.

Henrik Zetterberg and Mikael Samuelsson scored with the man advantage to lead the Red Wings to a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames at Joe Louis Arena on Wednesday night.

Tomas Holmstrom and Kris Draper also scored and Pavel Datsyuk added a pair of assists for Detroit, which remained perfect in three home games.

"(Miikka) Kiprusoff's a real good goalie, so it's hard to have too much offense," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said. "It was good to see some of our guys get an opportunity, obviously. I was impressed by our power play again. Obviously, it was real good. We didn't give up that much, a few breakdowns, but a lot better."

Kristian Huselius scored both goals for Calgary (0-2-1), which is winless in its first three games for the first time since the 2000-01 season and was opening a four-game road trip.

"I think there's a lot more in that dressing room than we're seeing," Flames coach Mike Keenan said. "I hope so anyway."

Draper's goal with 3:01 remaining in the second period put the Red Wings ahead to stay, 3-2. He redirected defenseman Andreas Lilja's shot from the high slot past Kiprusoff for his second tally of the season.

"I just saw the puck getting out to Lils and just tried to get my body and my stick as much as I could in front of the net," Draper said. "It hit my stick and went in. It was nice to see."

Samuelsson iced it with 4:24 to play in the contest, converting a power play just 13 seconds after Calgary defenseman Adrian Aucoin was sent off for interference.

"They got the lead, they're a pretty strong team when they have the lead," Huselius said. "We battled back ... But we kind of got put back on our heels in the third period."

There were just five penalties in the contest - three by the Flames.

The Red Wings opened the scoring at 8:08 of the first period, when Datsyuk found a wide-open Zetterberg on the right side for a power-play goal.

It was Zetterberg's second tally of the season and extended his points streak to 11 consecutive regular-season games dating to last season. Zetterberg also has a 19-game streak at home.

"It's been a good start (personally)," Zetterberg said. "It's a long season, so you just have to be happy and keep going."

The Flames tied the game at 13:21, when Huselius scored his first goal of the season, backhanding the puck over goaltender Chris Osgood, who was making his first start of the campaign.

Detroit went ahead again at 3:01 of the second period as Holmstrom beat Kiprusoff from the doorstep for his fourth goal. Datsyuk and blue-liner Brian Rafalski picked up assists on the play.

The lead was short-lived as Huselius struck again just over three minutes later, tying the game at 6:25 on another backhander from a bad angle that deflected off Osgood.

Osgood made 19 saves for Detroit, which outshot Calgary, 28-21.

Kiprusoff stopped 24 shots for the Flames, who went 0-for-2 on the power play.

"Defensively, we didn't work hard enough and didn't create enough," Calgary captain Jarome Iginla said.