Red Wings Blitz Senators, Beat Ottawa 4-3
A recap of tonight's game between the Ottawa Senators and the Detroit Red Wings.
The Senators made the trip to Detroit tonight to play the Red Wings and had an excellent opportunity to take the lead with an early, lengthy 5-on-3 advantage. The Sens wasted no time scoring, as Kyle Turris put one passed Jimmy Howard for the early lead. Unfortunately, the Sens couldn't add another, despite a few dangerous chances. Detroit would get its own 5-on-3 opportunity late in the period when Ottawa took two bad penalties. Alex Chiasson was the culprit on the first, taking a needless holding penalty behind the Wings net. With Detroit pressuring on the PP, Mark Borowiecki charged toward the Sens blueline and caught Henrik Zetterberg with a knee-on-knee hit. It was a dangerous hit and Boro was lucky to escape with just a two minute tripping penalty. Ottawa killed off the 5-on-3, but Detroit's Gustaf Nyquist equalized on the 5-on-4. Detroit almost added to its lead when David Legwand made a terrible give away in front on his own net. Fortunately for the veteran, Mark Borowiecki, who was near the benches, raced back into the play breaking up an easy tap-in. It was an excellent, goal-saving effort from Boro and felt like the kind of effort players make when they know they've made a big mistake. The real hero of the first period was Craig Anderson, turning aside 18 of 19 shots in the period.
The second period got underway with an early Craig Anderson tripping penalty, sending the potent Detroit attack back to the power play. The Wings were able to capitalize and on poor change by the Senators which allowed Detroit to enter the zone with space. Cody Ceci drifted away from his man and Riley Sheahan slid a juicy rebound into a wide open net to give the Wings the lead. In the second half of the period after consecutive icings, Stephen Weiss, yes, Stephen Weiss, got away from Turris and scored to give the Wings a 3-1 lead. But wait! There's more! Stephen Weiss scored again minutes later! Some poor play in the Ottawa end, including some laughably bad coverage on Weiss from Cowen resulted in the fourth Detroit goal. The Wings outshot the Sens 12-7 in the second period.
The third started with some decent shifts from Ottawa and an Erik Karlsson goal from the point. The Senators pressured the Wings for much of the period as score effects came into play and Detroit sat back and absorbed Ottawa's pressure. Chris Neil, skating as the extra attacker with Andy pulled, tipped a Mike Hoffman shot in the final minute to make things interesting. Detroit hung on for the victory thanks to a last second Jimmy Howard save, winning 4-3. Shots 43-26 in favour of Detroit.
Sens Hero: Craig Anderson
Sure he let in four goals, only had a 90.7 SV% on the night, and he put his team in a whole by taking a penalty early in the second period, but Andy was good tonight. The team was dreadful in front of him and Andy made a number of great saves but couldn't do it alone.
Sens Hero: Erik Karlsson
Good game from the captain. A goal and an assist and four shots on net. Was trying to do a lot tonight and was trying to do it all in the third period.
Dishonourable Mention: Mark Borowiecki
Boro's goal-saving defensive play keeps him from being a zero, but his ill-timed penalty helped get Detroit on the board after a decent start to the game by the Senators.
Dishonourable Mention: Cody Ceci
Tough night for the kid. Ceci made some poor decisions tonight: bad pinches and broken coverage.
Dishonourable Mention: David Legwand
Had some terrible giveaways, most notably in front of his own net (it would have led to a sure goal if Boro hadn't broken up the play) and looked slow on the power play, especially in third.
Sens Zero: Jared Cowen
His play has been much improved since he's been back in the lineup, but tonight was not his night. On the ice for three Detroit goals, his coverage and positioning weren't up to the task tonight.
Sens Zero: Penalties
The Sens took six penalties and most, if not all, were needless penalties that resulted from a lack of discipline not attempts to make hockey plays. This team is not good enough to spend so much time shorthanded and Detroit made Ottawa pay, converting twice.
Sens Killer: Stephen Weiss
Weiss' goals hurt because they came so close together and because they put Ottawa in such a deep hole. When a player equals the amount of goals he had all last season in just 4:30 minutes it's a killer.
Game flow via Natural Stat Trick:
Shot chart via ESPN: