Reimer, Red Wings blank Flames, 5-0 Fllmes have lost all traction with third straight loss

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In Calgary, the Flames’ inability to maintain any consistency in any season came to fore on Saturday night. The visiting Detroit Red Wings’ James Reimer made 38 saves in a 5-0 shutout of the Falmes.

“It’s nice when you contribute to the team. That’s all you want to do,” Reimer said. “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. Today, for the most part, everything was going well for me, and I was getting bounces.”

Detroit improved to 28-20-6.

“Huge,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “… If you want to stay in this battle which we’re in as long as possible, you can’t have extended losing streaks. … Pretty good response from the guys.”

Patrick Kane hit off the power play at 14:56 of the opening stanza for a 1-0 lead to Detroit.

J.T. Compher  pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 15:59.

“When we let a goal in, we’ve got to find a way next shift to come out with energy or whatever that can be in different ways,” Calgary’s Mikael Backlund said. “I feel like the last couple games we got a little too low after letting goals in, and they scored another one pretty quickly afterwards. We’ve just got to stop that bleeding and focus on the next shift and try and create some energy and change the game.”

The Flames dropped to 25-25-5 off their third straight loss. All of the good feelings from a four-game winning streak have evaporated.

“This was a frustrating loss,” Backlund said. “Once we get scored on, I feel like we’re sliding, lose the momentum and lose the way we know we can play when we’re successful. I feel like we lost the last two games when it became tough and hard. We’ve got to be better here to fight back.”

Calgary was scoreless in five power play chances.

In the middle frame, the Red Wings tacked on two more for a 4-0 lead headed to the third period.

Dylan Larkin scored at 5:12 to make the advantage, 3-0 off a power play strike.

David Perron ballooned the lead to 4-0 at 6:41 of the middle frame.

Lucas Raymond potted a goal with under five minutes left on the game clock in the third period for the 5-0 final count on the scoreboard.

Jacob Markstrom got the start for the Flames, he made eight saves while yielding four goals. He got the hook in the middle frame.

“It was 4-0 at that point, so nothing on Jacob; I think we can all probably agree on that,” Flames coach Ryan Huska said. “I was just trying to change the way the game was going.”

Dan Vladar made eight saves in a mop up role

“I thought we started the game really good,” Markstrom said. “We really pushed them back. Obviously, they got two goals at the end of the first and then two goals early in the second.

“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.”