CALGARY, Alberta -- Their defense was suspect, their goaltending shaky early on.

But the Detroit Red Wings showed their resiliency by battling back from a two-goal second period deficit to tie the game. Todd Bertuzzi then scored the only goal in the shootout Friday as the Red Wings defeated the Calgary Flames 5-4 at the Saddledome for their fifth consecutive road victory.

The Red Wings lost another player in the process, however, as defenseman

Brad Stuart suffered a broken jaw

and will be out indefinitely.

Detroit coach Mike Babcock was irate about the hit from Tom Kostopoulos that injured Stuart with 9:53 to play in the third period.

“It’s unfortunate, it was a bad hit, a blindside hit to the head, uncalled for, unneeded,’’ Babcock said.

He believes the NHL will take disciplinary action.

“I would assume they’d look at it and I would assume he’ll be suspended,’’ Babcock said. “You’re supposed to look after good players in the league. I have no problem if the guy buries him ... but you don’t hit him in the head, there’s no reason to do that. It’s disappointing.’’

He later added, “that’s disgraceful, it’s embarrassing.’’

Babcock said Stuart will need to have his jaw wired shut.

The injury to one of their most valuable defensemen -- Stuart leads the team in hits and blocked shots and played on the top pairing with Nicklas Lidstrom -- overshadowed a tremendous win.

Bertuzzi capped it by slowly approaching goaltender Mikka Kiprusoff and making a nice move to backhand the puck past him.

“I played here so I know Kip,’’ Bertuzzi said. “I used to do a lot of breakaways on Kip (in practice). He knows I like to go in tight, so I knew that poke-check as coming. So it was just matter of being quick with it and try to get it up.’’

Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard struggled the first half the game, but finished strong. He made several big saves in the third period and overtime and stopped all three shootout attempts.

He said Bertuzzi’s shootout try was unstoppable.

“It’s total advantage to the shooter, with him coming in so slow,’’ Howard said. “If he just changes up his momentum really quickly, your perception and distance you want to keep is off.’’

Brian Rafalski scored his first two goals of the season in his 800th career game. Patrick Eaves, back after missing three games with an elbow injury, continued his hot streak with his 12th goal, on the power play. Darren Helm also continued on his upswing with a goal and an assist.

“Both goalies couldn’t get hit (with the puck) early and our guy found a way to make huge saves at the end,’’ Babcock said. “But obviously we’re really short-staffed (they also played without Valtteri Filppula, due to a groin injury), so we didn’t have the puck as much as we normally do. We just hung in there and hung in there and found a way to get a couple of points, which is important for us, we’re trying to stay near the top.

“This road trip so far to get two wins is really important.’’

Rafalski scored his second goal of the game at 8:16 of the third period to tie it 4-4. He fired a shot from along the boards that handcuffed Kiprusoff.

Howard, who hasn’t been as sharp the last month, stepped up big the latter half of the game.

“In the third period and the overtime, he played tremendous for us, made some great saves,’’ Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said.

Howard said he just tried to keep battling.

“I knew it’s going to pass if I keep staying focused and trying to make saves, bounces will start going our way,’’ Howard said. “I wanted to win. (Lost) a couple of games in a row, I wasn’t losing three, that was fore sure. I was going to do whatever it took to win that game.’’

Rafalski’s contribution helped. He skated into the offensive zone and got off a harmless-looking shot that deflected off a Calgary player into the net, trying the game 2-2 at the 41-second mark of the second period.

But the Flames answered quickly, as Curtis Glencross scored at 1:09. Howard over-committed to his left and couldn’t slide over to his right quickly enough, leaving much of the net exposed.

Anton Babchuk made it 4-2 on the power play at 11:33, blasting in a shot from just inside the blue line that deflected in off Nicklas Lidstrom’s stick.

After failing to score during a 40-second two-man advantage, the Red Wings cut their deficit to 4-3 when Eaves blasted in a cross-ice pass from Jiri Hudler on the power play with 18 seconds left in the period.

“It was a timely goal for us,’’ Eaves said. “Huds made a great pass.’’

The Flames led 2-1 after the first period.

Glencross scored at 8:43 when he appeared to fan on a shot but still managed to get it in the net.

Helm tied it at 15:58, firing in a sharp-angle shot that found a small opening. Helm has goals in consecutive games and nine points in the last nine games (two goals, seven assists).

The Flames regained the lead when Jarome Iginla scored on a wraparound with 10 seconds remaining in the period.

Ultimately, though, the Red Wings would not be denied.

“We weren’t at our best and they were pretty good and made it tough on us, but we battled,’’ Eaves said. “The whole team and Jimmy came up huge at the end. We’ll take our two points and get out of here.’’

Post-game: Nicklas Lidstrom and Jimmy Howard

Post-game: Niklas Kronwall and Mike Babcock

Tom Kostopoulos breaks Brad Stuart's jaw