CALGARY, Alberta (Ticker) -- Keeping Mathieu Dandenault in the lineup paid big dividends for the Detroit Red Wings .
Dandenault scored the go-ahead goal with 9:58 left in the third period as the Red Wings reclaimed home-ice advantage in their Western Conference semifinal series with a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames .
Detroit won the Presidents' Trophy after posting the NHL's best record during the regular season but ceded home-ice advantage to sixth-seeded Calgary with an overtime loss in the series opener.
The Flames maintained that edge with a 3-2 triumph in Game Three and erased a two-goal deficit in this one before Dandenault came through.
Calgary could not make a line change during a period of sustained pressure by the Red Wings and Tomas Holmstrom got off a point-blank shot from the right side. The puck trickled past goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff and was poked over the goal line by Dandenault, who ended a 31-game playoff scoring drought.
"They were in their zone for a good minute and obviously, they were really tired," Dandenault said. "Knowing they were going to be tired, you just hang around the net because if they do get the puck, they're going to ice it. The puck just kind of squirted through and I tapped it in."
"It wasn't a defenseman's mistake," Calgary coach Darryl Sutter said. "The left winger has to recognize he's at the end of the shift and he's got the puck. Shoot it down the ice. It's all you've got to do."
Red Wings coach Dave Lewis dressed six defensemen, one fewer than in Game Three, but kept Dandenault in the lineup with three-time Norris Trophy winner Chris Chelios nursing an arm injury.
"We miss (Chelios), obviously, but it's playoff hockey," Dandenault said. "They wish they had a lot of guys back, also. You just have to do it with whoever you've got in the lineup."
Kirk Maltby and Boyd Devereaux scored their first playoff goals and Curtis Joseph made 25 saves on his 37th birthday for Detroit, which hosts Game Five on Saturday afternoon.
"I think that's our best game collectively as a group of 12 forwards and six defensemen that we've played in the series and that, to me, was our strength tonight," Lewis said. "Every individual worked for one purpose and that was the end result."
Martin Gelinas and Ville Nieminen scored for the Flames, but Nieminen could be suspended for Saturday's matinee after running Joseph with 3.2 seconds left.
"He violated a code," Lewis said. "There's rules for it, but there's a code in the National Hockey League. ... I haven't seen that a lot, crossing the line like that just deliberately. I certainly hope (NHL officials) review it."
"No, no," Nieminen said. "You just try and get the puck in front of the net and I got a little too close."
Detroit needed just 26 seconds to grab the lead on Maltby's first playoff goal since Game Two of the 2002 Stanley Cup Finals.
Devereaux ended an 11-game playoff drought and doubled the lead three minutes into the second period, but Gelinas beat Joseph from close range and Nieminen had all kinds of time to stickhandle in front of the net before lifting a backhander past the goalie.
"It was good to battle back, but we can't put ourselves in a position like that," Calgary defenseman Robyn Regehr said.