Detroit — The Detroit Red Wings were down a goal and going on a power play. And the Ottawa Senators had them right where they wanted them.
As it has so many times over a losing streak that on Saturday afternoon reached five games, the Red Wings came up short in a crucial third period, giving up two shorthanded goals and on the power play in the final frame as the last-place Senators rolled to a 6-3 win at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
Detroit (13-11-6) scored 2:32 into the game but was counterpunched at every opportunity and had a forgettable day on special teams. Ottawa (14-14-2) was 3-for-5 on the power play — in addition to the pair of shorthanded goals that sealed the Wings’ fate — and the Red Wings just 1-for-6.
Detroit took a 1-0 lead just 2:32 into the game, and the Senators and Red Wings exchanged blows throughout the first period, entering the intermission tied 2-2 despite the Wings holding a 13-7 shot advantage.
Elmer Soderblom dumped the puck back in and Dominik Kubalik retrieved a puck in the corner and quickly fed it to Joe Veleno for a quick shot that beat Cam Talbot through the wickets for a 1-0 lead, Veleno’s fourth of the season.
Drake Batherson fired a soft shot over the shoulder of Red Wings goalkeeper Ville Husso at 12:47 and Adam Erne deflected a shot from Jake Walman off his chest — Erne’s fifth goal and Walman’s first point this season — and into the goal at 14:56.
Veleno then took a penalty late in the opening frame, opening the door for Ottawa’s fifth-ranked power play to go to work and tie the game yet again. Thomas Chabot fired a shot through bodies that found its way past Husso at 18:42.
Red Wings defenseman Filip Hronek, third on the team in points entering Saturday, snapped a four-game point drought with his seventh goal of the season. With the Wings on a 5-on-3, Hronek fired an equalizer over the shoulder of Talbot to tie the game at 3-3 at 12:14 in the second and give the Red Wings their first power-play goal in four games.
In a physical third period, Ottawa found an edge on the power play at 8:14. With chaos brewing in front of Husso, Brady Tkachuk worked the puck between his legs to find a wide-open Giroux and a 4-3 lead. At 12:48, the Senators counterattacked on a Wings’ power play and took the wind out of Detroit’s sails with Tyler Motte’s third goal of the season.
The Red Wings went on another power play with just over three minutes to go, but with Husso pulled, Austin Watson added insult to injury with his team’s second shorthanded goal of the period.