Out Of Gas: Red Wings Hand Senators Their First Loss

On Tuesday night, the Senators looked very much like a team playing their third game in their first four nights of the regular season.

Former Senator Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist as the Red Wings (1-2-0) defeated the Sens, 5-3, handing the Senators (2-1-0) their first loss of the season. William Eklund, Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson each had a goal an assist.

Stutzle opened the scoring on a nice solo rush, but that was the only Senators highlight through the first half of this game. Samuel Ersson had some tough early moments in his first start as a Senator but settled in as the game went on, making 32 saves.

In the end, the Red Wings were the better team, outshooting Ottawa 36-25.

It was a difficult opening period for a Sens team that looked a step behind for long stretches.

After DeBrincat and Dylan Larkin scored in the first, things got worse early in the second.

Viktor Arvidsson scored a power-play goal at 2:01 before Justin Faulk made it 4-1 just over two minutes later. Four goals on Detroit's first 17 shots left the Senators with a big hole to climb out of.

But to their credit, they nearly did.

The Senators finally began to generate some pressure in the second period, outshooting Detroit 14-12. Batherson gave them some life with an easy power-play goal at 6:08. That made it 4-2 and gave the Sens some hope heading into the third.

Eklund then made things genuinely interesting. The newcomer smacked one in off John Gibson from a bad angle to cut Detroit's lead to 4-3.

But the Sens couldn't find the equalizer. They pulled their goalie for a 6-on-4 during a late power play, they only opted did so with nine seconds left in their man advantage.

DeBrincat ended any hope of another Senators comeback when he scored into the empty net with 50 seconds remaining.

Tempers Boil Over Late

There always seems to be bad blood when these teams gather.

As time expired in the second period, and in his first game back from a two game suspension, Ridly Greig delivered a reverse hit on DeBrincat that the Red Wings didn't appreciate. As the pushing and shoving was clearly dying down, Thomas Chabot then took two more shots at DeBrincat, and things quickly escalated.

Three separate altercations broke out. Greig and Jordan Spence both found themselves being worked over in the ensuing chaos, while Shane Pinto wrestled DeBrincat to the ice.

Despite all of that, there were no fighting majors handed out, which cost DeBrincat what would have been an unlikely Gordie Howe Hat Trick.. Instead, officials distributed a collection of roughing penalties, with the teams finishing the night with 18 penalty minutes apiece.

But the skirmish seemed to shake the Sens back to life as they almost pulled off the comeback.

After two nice road wins to open the season, the Sens simply didn't have enough on Tuesday, but if you told them last week they'd take two of three on this trip, they'd probably have been happy with that, especially without Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub, two of their top three defensemen.

For Detroit, the victory was a welcome one. The Red Wings entered the night winless amid a turbulent start to their season.

After beginning their season with three straight road games packed into four days, the Sens will play their long-awaited home opener Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa