CALGARY, Alberta _ The Detroit Red Wings pulled off some last-minute magic to at least earn a point.
Tomas Tatar scored with 2 seconds to go in the third period Friday at Scotiabank Saddledome, banking a puck short-side off Brian Elliott off a setup from Henrik Zetterberg.
Petr Mrazek denied Johnny Gaudreau on a breakaway in overtime. Elliott stopped Ryan Sproul's slap-shot attempt, after which Mikael Backlund scored to hand Detroit a 3-2 loss. The Wings are 1-0-1 on this trip as they head into Edmonton Saturday.
Darren Helm scored the first goal but a penalty and a horrible turnover left the Wings trailing, 2-1, after two periods, even as they outshot the Flames, 23-19, and were getting a good performance out of Mrazek.
Mrazek turned away Gaudreau on a breakaway early in the third period, and Danny DeKeyser got nabbed for hooking Gaudreau to leave the Wings shorthanded for the third time. Kris Versteeg tried for another one-timer but Mrazek made that save, then a glove save on Dougie Hamilton. Tomas Tatar hit a goal post after Zetterberg got the puck to the paint near the midpoint of the third period.
Mrazek came through with another save on Gaudreau as the Flames pressed for an insurance goal. Elliott stopped a wrist shot from Zetterberg as the teams went shot for shot. Mrazek took off for the bench with 1:40 to play in regulation.
Mrazek had to made a save on Backlund within 30 seconds of the puck dropping, and another on Versteeg soon after. Mostly the first handful of minutes was just a lot of chipping the puck off the boards and going back-and-forth. Anthony Mantha just missed wide on a near-open net.
Seconds after that, Helm made it 1-0 when he took a pass from Justin Abdelkader at Calgary's blue line and wired a shot behind Elliott.
A double high-sticking penalty on Andreas Athanasiou saw Versteeg score on a one-timer off the faceoff. After killing off the second part of the penalty, the Wings established good offensive zone time both on a shift from Zetterberg's line, and Helm's.
It was, however, the Flames who scored next, thanks to a turnover by Niklas Kronwall deep in his own zone that Matthew Tkachuk turned into a 2-1 Flames lead, at 13:07. The Wings were outshot 17-9, in the first period.
The Wings got a power play early in the second period and it was decent enough that they had to hope a second straight one could yield a goal. Instead the Wings barely had possession of the puck.
They were better at even strength, establishing offensive zone time and making Elliott work. Nick Jensen had a nice slap shot denied with about five minutes to play in the second period. The Wings had 14 shots in the second period.
