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Flames, Red Wings clash in Calgary

Dec 22, 2011 - 4:06 PM (Sports Network) - The Calgary Flames used a victory over one division leader to get back to .500. Tonight, they'll attempt to best another Western Conference power and record a fifth straight victory at home in a clash with the Detroit Red Wings, who play the latter portion of games on back-to- back nights.

The Flames evened their record at 15-15-4 and avoided a fifth straight loss with Tuesday's 2-1 victory over the Northwest Division-leading Wild. Calgary got a goal and an assist from Jarome Iginla, with the captain notching the 497th goal of his career.

Olli Jokinen had an assist to give him seven points in four games, Curtis Glencross also scored and Miikka Kiprusoff ended with 29 saves as the Flames snapped their longest losing streak of the season in the first of two straight at home.

"We don't need anybody to be great. We need everyone to be good, and when everyone's good the team's great," said Flames head coach Brent Sutter.

Calgary, which is 9-5-2 at home this season, played without forward Rene Bourque, who served the first of a two-game suspension for hitting Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook from behind on Sunday.

Detroit will see what it has left in the tank after last night's physical 4-2 loss in Vancouver. Todd Bertuzzi and Drew Miller scored for the Red Wings and Jimmy Howard made 21 saves, but his club was denied a third straight win thanks to its second loss in seven games.

It was a rough night for Howard, who gave up three goals in the first period and was then left angry with how the Canucks scored their fourth goal in the third. With Detroit on the power play, Vancouver's Jannik Hanson poked the puck and drove in on Howard. Hanson then crashed into the Red Wings netminder, but teammate Alex Edler was trailing on the play and fired into a wide open net.

It was ruled on the play that Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg made contact with Hanson, causing the collision with Howard.

"I'm just sick and tired of getting run over. It's every single game," said Howard. "Sometimes you can't help it, your [defense] is battling in front, things do happen. But I'm actually just getting sick of it."

The play that led to Detroit being up a man and could leave it shorthanded tonight.

Prior to the Canucks' short-handed goal, Red Wings defender Niklas Kronwell leveled Ryan Kesler with a body check, but appeared to leave his feet right before delivering the hit. That could lead to a suspension for the veteran, who drew a two-minute roughing penalty on Kesler after deciding not to engage the Vancouver forward after the hit.

Detroit has now split the first two of a four-game swing that ends in Nashville on Monday and fell to 8-9-0 as the guest this year.

The Red Wings and Flames have split a pair of meetings in Detroit this year, with the Red Wings winning the previous encounter on Nov. 23 for their seventh victory in the past 10 in this series. Detroit has won four straight in Calgary.