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Instant Reaction: Late Flames push not enough to ground Red Wings
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Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Ryan Pike
Dec 10, 2025, 23:26 EST
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Welcome to Instant Reaction, where we give you our instant reaction to tonight’s Calgary Flames game and ask our readers to do the same in the comments section below! 
The Calgary Flames looked to complete the sweep of their four game homestand on Wednesday evening when they hosted the Detroit Red Wings. Unfortunately, that’s not what transpired. The Flames made too many defensive miscues early and Detroit’s big guns made them pay, and they just couldn’t claw all the way back.
The Flames concluded their homestand with a 4-3 loss to Detroit.

The rundown

The Red Wings opened the scoring 62 seconds into this one. The Flames got caught up ice after making an offensive push, and that led to a four-on-three rush the other way. Patrick Kane found Alex Debrincat unattended to Devin Cooley’s right, and Debrincat’s one-timer beat the Flames’ netminder to give Detroit a 1-0 lead.
A little later on, Detroit cashed in again. This time, the Red Wings had the puck in the Flames’ zone and threw it to the point for Debrincat. He threw a pass across a seam to Axel Sandin-Pellikka, again to Cooley’s right, and again his one-timer beat Cooley to give Detroit a 2-0 lead.
Shots were 6-0 Detroit at one point, but then the Flames settled in a bit and made a bit of a push.
We got a scrum behind the Detroit net late in the period, as Adam Klapka whacked John Gibson after he had frozen the puck, leading to a crowd to form. Cooley skated to centre ice to monitor proceedings, but there was no goalie fight.
First period shots were 8-7 Flames. Via Natural Stat Trick, 5v5 scoring chances were 13-5 Flames and high-danger scoring chances were 3-1 Flames.
The Red Wings made it 3-0 early in the third period. Klapka recovered the puck after a Cooley save. But Andrew Copp pressured him into a defensive zone turnover, then fed the puck to Debrincat, who sniped the puck past Cooley.
The Red Wings went up 4-0 awhile later. The Flames won an offensive zone draw but Rasmus Andersson’s shot went wide. The puck blooped out of the Red Wings’ zone and was collected by Dylan Larkin, who turned on the jets, cut to the front of the Flames’ net and chipped the puck past Cooley.
Second period shots were 17-8 Flames. 5v5 scoring chances were 11-4 Flames and high-danger scoring chances were 4-3 Flames.
The Flames got on the board midway through the third period. Joel Farabee got a shorthanded breakaway and drew a penalty shot after being hooked by Axel Sandin-Pellikka. On the ensuing penalty shot, he beat John Gibson with a great shot, low glove-side, to cut Detroit’s lead to 4-1.
65 seconds later, the Flames managed to get another one. The Flames broke out of their own end, with Nazem Kadri carrying the puck into the Red Wings’ zone. He made a nice pass to Matt Coronato, entering the zone as the trailer, and Coronato beat Gibson to cut the Red Wings’ lead to 4-2.
A little later, the Flames got within one. The Flames got into the Detroit zone and stacked some traffic in front of Gibson. MacKenzie Weegar fired a point shot that found a way through traffic and past Gibson to cut Detroit’s edge down to 4-3.
The Flames pulled Cooley for the extra attacker late in regulation, but the Red Wings held on for the 4-3 victory.
Third period shots were 12-11 Flames.

Why the Flames lost

The Flames weren’t all that bad tonight. But they also weren’t all that good, especially in the first two periods. They had a lot of shots, sure, but not a ton of dangerous scoring chances – not much traffic, deflections or secondary chances on John Gibson. And when the Flames made miscues, Detroit’s skill players were keen to make them suffer for them. The Flames were more effective in the third period, but it was too little, too late by that point.

Red Warrior

Matt Coronato had seven shots and a nice goal in this game. He was really effectively, especially in the latter parts of this game.
Honourable mention to Nazem Kadri, who was also sharp late.

Turning point

The Red Wings scored a couple goals in rapid succession in the second period. If they could’ve avoided that outburst, they may have had a chance to claw their way back into this game. Alas, four goals was a bridge too far for the Flames.

This and that

Devin Cooley made his first start of the homestand. Hunter Brzustewicz made his season debut on the third pairing with Joel Hanley.
Joel Farabee’s penalty shot goal was the Flames’ first successful penalty shot since Game 4 of the Flames/Stars series in the 2022 playoffs, when Johnny Gaudreau scored. The last regular season penalty shot goal for the Flames was Mikael Backlund in October 2019.

After Burner

Join Ryan Pinder and Mike Gould right after the game for After Burner!

Up next

The Flames (12-16-4) are headed back on the road. They’ll head west to face the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night.

This article is brought to you by Platinum Mitsubishi

This article is a Presentation of Platinum Mitsubishi, family owned and operated by lifelong Calgarians. Home of the best warranty in the business with ten year warranties available. Check out the showroom at 2720 Barlow Trail NE or online at www.mitsu.ca

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