Trending: Red Wings burned by Flames, 6-4

CALGARY -- When the Red Wings needed their special teams to step up against the high-powered Calgary Flames, instead they faltered.
The Flames scored four goals in the third, two on the power play, one shorthanded and one an empty-netter to beat the Wings, 6-4, at Scotiabank Saddledome Friday night.

Anthony Mantha (power play), Dylan Larkin (two) and Mike Green scored for the Wings. Sam Bennett (two on the power play), Sean Monahan, James Neal (power play), Mark Giordano (shorthanded) and T.J. Brodie (empty net) scored for the Flames.
Detroit netminder Jimmy Howard made 30 saves in the loss and is now 9-9-1 lifetime against the Flames.
Calgary goaltender Mike Smith had 31 saves to improve to 2-0 this season against the Wings, 9-7-3 lifetime.
The Wings fell to 18-24-7. The Flames improved to 31-13-5.
Up next for the Wings is a Sunday afternoon contest in Vancouver. The Flames host the Edmonton Oilers Saturday night in the Battle of Alberta.

1.Dylan Larkin:Larkin came into the game with a modest two-game point streak but none of the four points were goals. In fact, Larkin had not scored since Jan. 4 against the Nashville Predators. But at 13:25 of the second, Larkin circled around the net to the right circle and fired the puck past Smith. It was Larkin's team-leading 19th goal of the season. Green and Tyler Bertuzzi picked up the assists. Larkin was far from done. Probably annoyed when the Flames tied the game at 3 with Larkin in the box for interference, Larkin responded with his second goal of the game at 8:35 of the third when he potted a rebound from the right circle past Smith for his 20th goal. Gustav Nyquist and Bertuzzi assisted. Larkin is just three goals shy of his career best, set in 80 games in his rookie season. Larkin finished with 28 shifts for a team-high 21:49, had a game-high eight shots, one hit, was 14-for-27 in face-offs and was even.

Quotable:"I just try be good for the guys every night and play my hardest. I know I play a lot of minutes and I appreciate that and don't take that for granted, so every time I'm out there I try to do right things for the team and battle my hardest. That's what it comes down to for me, getting in the game and effort. I can control those two things." - Larkin
Quotable II:"I think the number one way to assert yourself as a leader is by your approach and your play. I thought he was excellent as the game went along here tonight. I thought he was excellent. He's just gotta keep being a great 200-foot player, doing a great job defensively, making sure he's leading the way that way. He's done a good job having the puck on his stick. I think the best way to lead is through example." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable III: "I think he's the No. 1 leader right now in the room. He showed it when the team was doing really good he was on fire, he had a 12 or 13 game spread where he was always on the score sheet, so he stepped up a lot and hopefully guys can follow him in the next couple games here." - Mantha

2. Mike Green:There were a fair amount of Red Wings jerseys in the crowd among the many Flames jerseys but it was hard to spot one with Green's No. 25. Green, a Calgary native, was expecting quite a few family members and friends for the game. But Green acquitted himself quite well. At 4:16 of the third, Green deked around defenseman T.J. Brodie, then went forehand-backhand to beat Smith for the go-ahead goal. Thomas Vanek and Frans Nielsen assisted. Green also had an assist. Green finished with 26 shifts for 20:12, had two shots, one hit, two giveaways, one takeaway, three blocked shots and was plus-2.
   Quotable:"It's frustrating. Kind of let it slip away. We did play well for a good chunk of the game. I took a bad penalty at the end, I'm responsible for that, that sort of changed the pace. We'll regroup. We got two more on this trip, so we'll focus on that." - Green

Quotable II:"We should have put pucks in behind them with speed on the walls. We talked about it. (assistant coach) Dan Byslma went over it multiple times. We knew they were going to stand hard at the line. Put pucks into space and got get it. Pull up and set up your power play. We didn't do it." - Blashill
3.Anthony Mantha:Mantha has always done well against the Flames, coming into the game with four goals and four assists in four games against them. With both Mark Giordano and T.J. Brodie in the box, the Wings had 56 seconds 5-on-3 and made the most of it. Mantha scored at 19:01 of the first period, snapping the scoreless tie with his 12th goal of the season and second in as many games. Niklas Kronwall and Nyquist assisted. Nyquist leads the Wings with 31 assists. Mantha finished with 20 shifts for 14:51, had three shots, two giveaways, one takeaway and was even.

Quotable:"We couldn't get in the zone. It's easy to get in the zone 5-on-3 and we can't do it 5-on-4. It cost us the game. We have to blame ourselves. We knew the way they were waiting for us at the blue line we just couldn't handle their pressure, I guess." - Mantha
Quotable II: "He's a guy that once he gets hot he can really start to score. We're hoping he can really get hot here. He scored tonight, so hopefully he can build off that." - Blashill