This wasn’t the prettiest victory of the Red Wings’ season, but it was an important one.
And largely, thank goaltender John Gibson for Monday’s 5-3 victory in Ottawa.
The Wings didn’t completely outplay the Senators, but Gibson was better than whoever the Senators had in the game in net — starter Leevi Merilainen was replaced after one period — and the Wings won an important divisional game.
Andrew Copp (sixth goal), Dylan Larkin (22nd goal, power play) and James van Riemsdyk (11th goal) had first-period goals as the Wings took a 3-0 lead — and Lucas Raymond (12th goal) scored a late second-period goal after Ottawa had pulled to within 3-2.
Claude Giroux, Dylan Cozens (power play) and Brady Tkachuk had the Senators’ goals.
Tkachuk’s third period goal cut the Wings’ lead to 4-3 at 6 minutes, 55 seconds of the third period as Ottawa began regaining control of the game.
The Senators then had two consecutive power plays and the chance to tie. But the Wings killed the first one, then on the second, Michael Rasmussen’s shorthanded goal, his sixth at 12:53, restored a Wings’ two-goal lead, 5-3.
“That felt real good, especially we had a couple of penalties there, they’re on the power play (but) we had strong play net-front and Gibby was outstanding the whole game,” van Riemsdyk told FanDuel Sports Network.
“We made sure we closed that game out and that’s a sign of a good team. We can do that. We know we’re playing a good team, a team we’ll be fighting to the bitter end and anytime we can get a game against a team like that in that kind of way is good.”
BOX SCORE: Red Wings 5, Senators 3
Gibson made 35 saves and was the difference in the first period as the Wings out-shot 17-8 – but still held a 3-0 lead.
The Senators had an apparent game-opening goal by Nick Cousins early in the game get erased when the Wings won a video challenge confirming Ottawa was off-side on the goal.
From there, the momentum completely turned.
“Early in the game it was 8-, 9-0 shots on goal, they got that early power play and peppered us, and then the called back goal gave us a little life and energy and some belief,” coach Todd McLellan told FDSN.
“We thought their goaltender maybe had a little pressure put on him in the past and we wanted to do that as much as we could. We got the lead and held on after that.
“I still think there’s room for improvement with our team, but real big penalty kills down the stretch and our six-on-five we played it real well also.”
Copp made it 1-0, intercepting a pass and scoring on a drive at 7:06. Larkin made it 2-0 knocking in van Riemsdyk’s slick pass in front at 13:51 on the power play. With just 17 seconds left in the period, van Riemsdyk scored his 11th on a low shot along the ice that spelled the end of the night for Merilainen.
Ottawa backup goaltender Hunter Shepard gave his team a spark with a few good saves, and the Senators responded. Cozens’ power-play goal cut the lead to 3-2 at 14:10 of the second period.
But Raymond scored his first even-strength goal since Nov. 29, a quick wrist shot that handcuffed Shepard, at 15:42.
McLellan took Raymond off Larkin’s line and placed Raymond on a line centered by J.T. Compher and with van Riemsdyk, and Raymond responded.
“Part of the task we gave them was when we broke that Larkin line, it was simply because they hadn’t scored in a while five-on-five,” McLellan said. “Razor was one of them. For him to get that one, he used that shot, and he had one later I wish he would have shot it, he has such a good shot.
“But it has to make him feel a little better that he finally broke through.”
Switching some lines appeared to have the desire effect for one game, for sure.
“Anytime the coach kind of shuffles up lines like that, he’s trying to get the team’s attention, and he definitely did that,” van Riemsdyk told FDSN. “We came in with the right mindset as a team, and we had guys contributing all over the place. That’s what it takes to win these types of games.”
tkulfan@detroitnews.com
@tkulfan
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