The Calgary Flames must be praying that this is merely a quirk.

Not a trend.

In their past two home dates, they’ve scored exactly one time. Total.

It may not surprise you then to learn that both games ended up as losses, regulation losses, point-free losses. And for a squad awfully desperate for some upward mobility in the Western Conference, this comes as bad news indeed.

But the post-game faces were brave.

“We’re not worried with the guys we have in here,” said Alex Tanguay after Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings in National Hockey League action at the Scotiabank Saddledome. “We’re going to find ways to win games. At this point of the year, it’s not whether we win 7-6 or 1-0 — we’ll take whatever the outcome will be. It’s about scoring one more time than the opposition.

“(Tuesday), it certainly would have been nice to score another one.”

Asked for an assessment of the faltering offence, Michael Cammalleri said that would have to wait.

“It’s pretty fresh to think about it right now — we’ll probably address that (today),” said Cammalleri, whose club did hold the shot edge, 29-25. “The obvious one you’d say is create more chances. But if you look at the game, when it’s 1-1 in the third, I know we’re outshooting them . . . you feel like you like (you have) chances to win. I don’t really care if we have to score half a goal to win, as long as we win the game.”

Not that the Flames were bad Tuesday. In fact, they defended rather well. But a team as wily as the Wings knows how to finish, even their third- and fourth-liners.

So if they get, say, three great chances . . . .

n A first-period rebound stab by Cory Emmerton off Justin Abdelkader’s shot;

n A third-period pass-and-shot sequence, started by Valtteri Filppula, finished by Jiri Hudler;

n A late-game goalmouth bang-bang play, initiated by Daniel Cleary, with Drew Miller as his target . . . well, that would certainly be enough.

“They obviously got (three) chances and scored,” said Jay Bouwmeester. “You just can’t have those breakdowns . . . especially against a team like that. They’re going to capitalize.”

The Wings are 13-4-0 in their past 17 outings. The Flames, meanwhile, remain just a hair above .500, at 23-22-6.

“It’s certainly frustrating,” said Tanguay. “I felt we played a very solid game. We had our chances. It was a very tight game. If you look at the chances at the end of the game, I don’t think they had more chances — or not very many more — than we did.”

The sum total of the Flames’ attack in the past week — Jan. 24 against the visiting San Jose Sharks, Tuesday against the visitors from Motown — is a single power-play conversion, Cammalleri’s.

It was well-orchestrated, sure.

Olli Jokinen, deep in Detroit territory, scooped the puck out front. From there, Tanguay put a shot-pass in Cammalleri’s direction. The puck didn’t make it through cleanly, but it made it through — and Cammalleri did what he does best.

He finished, and (temporarily) tied the game.

But Cammalleri’s strike stands as all of their goal-scoring goodness, out of their past 54 shots, out of their past two games.

Excluding the Oilers — and those half-dozen tallies Jan. 21 at Edmonton — the Flames’ recent dates have provided a light assortment of offence. One goal, one, one, two, zero, one.

Maybe that’s a small sample size. But this season, averaging 2.33 goals per night, the Flames are 27th in offence.

“Well, it would be nice to score four or five every night, but, realistically, that’s not going to happen,” said Bouwmeester. “Bottom line — if you can be good defensively, if you can stick with it, you’re going to get your chances and bury them from there. You can create a lot by being good (defensively).”

C-NOTES: RW Lee Stempniak, in the first period, left with a lower-body injury . . . Post-game, the Flames assigned G Leland Irving (1-1-2, 3.67 GAA, .908) to AHL Abbotsford.