In Detroit, Filip Zadina scored the game-winner for the Red Wings early in the third period on Thursday for a 2-1 win over the visiting Calgary Flames.
“Everyone in this league is a pro and works hard to come back from injuries, but [Zadina] took that to another level,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “He has worked extremely, extremely hard and it was great to see him rewarded for it.”
Ville Husso made 35 saves in the win, 15 of them came in the third period.
“This is almost like playoff intensity for us,” Husso said. “There are about 30 games left, and we still want to make it. That’s up to us.”
The Red Wings improved to 22-20-8.
Calgary took a 1-0 lead with less than two minutes left in the middle frame off astrike from Blake Coleman.
“We’re struggling to create offense right now, so we have to find ways to get ugly goals,” Coleman said. “We can’t expect highlight-reel goals. We have to have guys willing to pay the price to get to the net.”
Dylan Larkin scored with 14 seconds left in the second period to tie the game, 1-1, headed to the third.
Calgary dropped to 24-18-10.
“I think that was maybe the elephant in the room we were dealing with in the first period,” Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. “But we held them to 17 shots in a road game and we had chances to tie it or take the lead.
“They just got the big goal, something we’ve seen a lot this year.”
“You’re going to be tied in the third period of a lot of games at this point in the season,” Calgary defenseman Chris Tanev said. “That’s true of every team in the playoff race, so you have to find ways to win those games.”
Dan Vladar made 15 saves in the Flames loss.
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