In Ottawa, Joe Veleno hit for a double for the Detroit Red Wings in a 5-2 win over the Senators in a Saturday matinee.
The game also featured the return of Alex DeBrincat to Ottawa.
“It’s nice to get it over with,” DeBrincat said, “but also at the same time, it’s still fresh and I think maybe a little later in the year, wouldn’t have been such a big story. … It’s good to get the win here and move on.”
The Red Wings scored three times on the power play, in five chances.
“Special teams were a big part of the game,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “Obviously, the power play and penalty kill and, I thought, our 5-on-5 improved as we went on. All in all, a really good road win against a top team.”
Ville Husso made 35 saves in the win.
Ottawa took a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Jake Sanderson at
Detroit got even at 18:15 on a marker from Shayne Gostisbehere for a 1-1 tie.
“I really liked how we handled some adversity tonight,” Lalonde said. “The first adversity of being on our heels, which is going to happen when you’re on the road against a very good team that kind of, I wouldn’t say jumped us, but they were all over us early.”
Detroit then grabbed the lead in the middle frame on goals from Joe Veleno (4:18) and David Perron (14:54).
“We all remember what happened when we came in here last year,” Veleno said. “We didn’t want to let that happen again. I think we came prepared. We knew what we were facing. They’re a [heck] of a team down there and I think they will be for a while. We came to play today.”
Dylan LArkin pushed the lead to 4-1 with just 28 seconds gone in the third period.
“We had some big-time breakdowns on the penalty kill,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “We took too many penalties, but you’ve got to kill them. And we just didn’t look good in that department.”
Veleno scored his double at 7:23 of the third for a 5-1 lead to Detroit.
“It was obviously two great players that made two awesome plays for me,” Veleno said of his two goals. “I was happy I was able to be in the right spot at the right time.”
Ottawa’s Ridly Greig scored just ahead of the midway point of the third period for the 5-2 final score.
“Second period’s got to be better,” Greig said. “We can’t get outworked like that in our building. Hopefully it doesn’t happen again.”
Joonas Korpisalo made 18 saves in the loss.
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