"A solemn Matt Stajan stood in front of his locker Wednesday night and shouldered much of the blame for a 2-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

"The first goal was just a mental error by myself," the Calgary Flames centre said, staring at the rug. "I jumped in when our defence pinched, and I should have pulled out.

"I gave them a two-on-one because of it, and they capitalized. I'm not going to hide from the fact that I made a mistake like that."

Stajan's mistake led to a goal by 40-year-old Mike Modano. Dancing in on a two-on-one, Modano opted to shoot instead of pass. The savvy veteran snapped it right under Miikka Kiprusoff's arm for his second of the season at 1:54 of the second period.

A bad line change for Calgary produced Detroit's second goal. Bursting in on a three-on-two. Pavel Datsyuk threaded a pass to Justin Abdelkader. The Michigan State product made no mistake to give the Wings a 2-0 lead at 12:05.

Two odd-man rushes against one of the most explosive teams in the National Hockey League? Miikka Kiprusoff may look like Superman, but he can't win games single-handedly night in and night out.

"Kipper's Kipper, " said forward Rene Bourque. "We know what to expect from him. Thank God we have him there, because he needs to play like that for us to be successful."

The Wings outshot the Flames 12-6 in the opening 20 minutes, but Calgary scored the only goal. Armed with a new contract — and a handlebar moustache minus the handlebars — Mark Giordano turned on the lamp for the first time this season.

With the Flames on a four-on-three, Giordano took a pass from Jarome Iginla and ripped it top shelf behind Jimmy Howard.

"They're a good team," Giordano said. " Not going to take anything away from them. They're always pressuring, always going. You see even on their penalty kill they try to create out there, push you back."