The Calgary Flames welcomed some new faces to their lineup on Saturday night against the Detroit Red Wings. Unfortunately, the Flames’ offensive challenges continued – for one more evening, at least.

The Flames had their looks and generated a decent volume of chances, but they could only beat Red Wings netminder Cam Talbot once, losing 3-1 at home to Detroit in the first half of a back-to-back set.

The Flames were kind of all over the place in the first period. They had some good scoring chances early on, but they were also pretty leaky defensively.

Detroit opened the scoring midway through the period. Christian Fischer won a puck battle along the wall in the Flames’ zone, then threw a pass to a streaking Dylan Larkin. Larkin fired a shot that beat Dustin Wolf to make it 1-0 Red Wings.

The Red Wings doubled up their lead late in the first period. They got their cycle going in the Flames zone and hemmed in Calgary’s fourth line. Simon Edvinsson fired a shot that beat Wolf clean short-side to make it 2-0 Red Wings.

First period shots were 12-8 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, five-on-five scoring chances were 11-10 Flames (high-danger chances were 3-2 Red Wings).

Neither team scored in second. The Flames looked a lot better than they did in the second; they were tighter defensively, but the Red Wings did a good job keeping them to the outside for the most part in the offensive zone.

Second period shots were 13-8 Flames. Five-on-five scoring chances were 14-4 Flames (high-danger chances were 8-0 Flames).

Midway through the third period, Matt Coronato drew a penalty. On the ensuing power play, the first unit generated a lot of chances but couldn’t score. But as the second unit got onto the ice, Nazem Kadri fired a shot – with a moving screen from Blake Coleman – that beat Cam Talbot to cut the Red Wings lead to 2-1.

The Flames pulled Wolf for the extra attacker but couldn’t get much going. Andrew Copp scored an empty-netter to make it 3-1 Red Wings.

The visitors held on for the victory.

Third period shots were 9-8 Red Wings. Five-on-five scoring chances were 8-3 Red Wings (high-danger chances were 4-1 Red Wings).

The Flames just weren’t sharp enough in the first period. Detroit was a little bit sharper and more opportunistic, and earned a two-goal lead. And then the Flames simply couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole they dug.

Blake Coleman was consistently noticeable when he was on the ice, so we’ll give it to him.

Is it unfair to say “the entire first period”? The Flames just weren’t good in the first period. They gave up a ton offensively, they didn’t generate enough, and Dustin Wolf couldn’t hide their deficiencies. (The second Detroit goal was the rare goal allowed by Wolf that you look and go “He probably wants that back.”)

This was the Flames debut for forwards Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost, both acquired in Thursday’s swap with Philadelphia.

Farabee played 18:01, all at even strength, and was even. Frost played 17:21 – 14:56 at even strength and 2:25 on the power play – and was minus-2 with three shots on goal.

The Flames (25-19-7) are off to scenic Seattle, Washington. They face the Kraken on Sunday night.

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