It was a successful return for Larkin after a tumultuous offseason. Larkin asked for a trade away from Detroit, announced that he would no longer be the team's captain, then sustained an upper-body injury days before the start of training camp.
He was loudly booed during his first shifts, but that changed when the Red Wings (1-2-0) started scoring.
Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist for Detroit, while Viktor Arvidsson had a goal and an assist and Lucas Raymond had three assists. John Gibson made 22 saves for the Red Wings in their first win of the season.
Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and William Eklund each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa (2-1-0). Samuel Ersson made 31 saves.
Stutzle gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 2:44 of the first period. He picked the puck up in his end of the ice, beat Axel Sandin-Pellikka and used Ben Chiarot as a screen for a snap shot past Gibson’s blocker.
Detroit only needed 32 seconds for DeBrincat to make it 1-1, beating Ersson from the bottom of the left face-off circle thanks to Nate Danielson’s pass from the right side of the crease at 3:16.
Larkin gave Detroit its first lead of the season at 13:14. DeBrincat’s pass found Arvidsson down low, and he flicked the puck to Larkin alone at the top of the crease.
Arvidsson then made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 2:01 of the second period, snapping in the rebound of Larkin’s initial shot, and then Justin Faulk broke through the Ottawa defense thanks to a stretch pass from William Wallinder with a wrist shot from the high slot to put Detroit up 4-1 at 4:30.
Batherson cut it to 4-2 at 6:08 on the power play. He got a pass from Eklund at the left post and put it up and over the stick of Gibson with an off-speed wrist shot.
Eklund scored from a tough angle, getting the rebound of Fabian Zetterlund's shot off the end boards and putting it past Gibson to make it 4-3 at 10:30 of the third period.
DeBrincat put one into the empty net on the power play for the 5-3 final at 19:10.
