(Sports Network) - The Calgary Flames put forth an encouraging outing last time out, but failed to come away with a much-needed victory.

The last-place club will try to get rolling on Tuesday night when they open their first road trip of the season with a contest against the Detroit Red Wings.

The Flames play the first of three straight on the road and sit at just 1-3-2 despite opening the season with five of their first six at home. They have dropped two in a row since picking up their lone victory of the season and suffered a disappointing 3-2 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

Jay Bouwmeester put Calgary ahead with 35 seconds left in the third period on his second goal of the season, but Chicago's Marian Hossa tied the game with 2.1 ticks left in the frame. Patrick Kane then scored the winner in the shootout, beating Miikka Kiprusoff, who made 17 saves, between the legs.

Roman Cervenka had a chance to extend the shootout, but his wrist shot was turned aside by Chicago netminder Ray Emery.

Dennis Wideman also scored in the third period for the Flames, who outshot the Blackhawks 24-6 in the third, 47-19 in the game and nearly handed them their first regulation loss of the season.

It was certainly an effort that the Flames can build on and coach Bob Hartley said the only thing missing from the game was a victory.

"I think that we skated our best game of the season," Hartley added. "We generated plenty of scoring chances, we just couldn't get the big goal."

Calgary forward Alex Tanguay notched his 500th career assist in the setback and has logged three goals and six points during a five-game point streak.

Detroit will try to avoid losing a second straight game following a 4-2 setback to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday. Johan Franzen and Damien Brunner both scored, with Brunner's goal coming with 27 seconds to play.

Brunner has four goals and six points over a six-game point streak, while Franzen has tallied seven points during a five-game run.

Jimmy Howard stopped 24-of-28 shots for the Red Wings, who had won two in a row. That included a 5-3 win over the St. Louis Blues the previous night in which Henrik Zetterberg had three goals and two assists.

"Our effort wasn't good tonight. (We committed) too many mental errors out there," said Zetterberg, who had a six-game point streak snapped. "They played better than us tonight."

Already dealing with a number of injuries, including nagging ailments to both backup goaltenders, defenseman Brendan Smith suffered a right shoulder sprain in the first period versus the Blue Jackets and is expected to miss 3-to-4 weeks.

Fellow blueliner Ian White, though, is hoping to return to action in this game for the first time since suffering a lacerated left leg on Jan. 22. He practiced on Monday.

The Red Wings split four meetings with the Flames last season, but have won seven of the last nine encounters overall. They have also won three of the last four played in Detroit in this series.

Tuesday will mark current Flame Jiri Hudler's first career game against the Red Wings, who selected the forward in the second round of the 2002 draft. Hudler played in 409 games with Detroit and logged 87 goals and 214 points.

The 29-year-old signed a four-year deal with the Flames in July and has two goals and five points in three games this season, having missed the start of the campaign following the death of his father.

The Sports Network