In Detroit, in a span of 3:13, the Red Wings turned a 5-1 deficit to the Ottawa Senators into a 4-2 lead on goals from Lucas Raymond, Elmer Soderblom, and Michael Rasmussen.
“We knew there would be a lot of energy in the building because of the tradition on New Year’s Eve, but our guys earned every bit of it tonight,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “It was awesome to be a part of a game where the whole team turned the momentum around like this.”
Magnus Hellberg made 21 saves for the Detroit win over his former club.
“It didn’t matter if we were playing against Magnus or another goalie, we needed to shoot the puck,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “We had 45 shots the other night (in a 4-3 overtime win at the Washington Capitals) and we had 13 in the first two periods tonight. We were playing way too cute for our style of hockey.”
Ottawa had a 23-1 lead over the Red Wings on markers from Austin Watson and Claude Giroux.
“I thought we definitely played well in the first period, but they got better in the second,” Watson said. “They made a push, and I don’t know if it was just the energy in the building or us not being confident in what we were doing, but they took it to us.”
The Senators dropped to 16-17-3.
Ottawa took the dreaded 2-0 lead in the first period before Detroit replied with a goal in the middle frame from Pius Suter for a 2-1 count headed to the trhird period outburst.
“It’s definitely a positive that we can score in bunches like we’ve done a few times lately, but we need to get off to better starts,” Rasmussen said. “We can’t keep putting ourselves in a hole.”
Cam Talbot made 21 saves in the Sens loss.
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