RECAP: 'Contributions from a lot of different people in different ways' part of Red Wings' 5-3 victory over Senators

DETROIT -- Getting into the win column for the first time in their 2026-27 campaign, the Detroit Red Wings scored two goals in each of the first two periods and then held off the Ottawa Senators for a 5-3 victory at Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday night.

“A good team win,” said Dylan Larkin, who collected a goal and an assist in his season debut. “We needed a win here. It was important to get this one for our team and organization.”

Larkin, who had been sidelined because of an upper-body injury he sustained in offseason training, was one of five players — along with Alex DeBrincat (two goals, one assist), Lucas Raymond (three assists), Viktor Arvidsson (one goal, one assist) and Justin Faulk (one goal, one assist) — to record multi-point efforts for Detroit (1-2-0; 2 points) against Ottawa (2-1-0; 4 points). 

“I saw a lot of elements to our game that we’ve been working on,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “I thought we were heavier and harder than we’d been in the past. I liked the way we brought the puck out. I liked that we didn’t panic."

Although Ottawa struck first on a Tim Stützle snapshot from the inside edge of the left faceoff circle that beat goaltender John Gibson 2:44 into the game, Detroit got two goals of its own past netminder Samuel Ersson before the 15-minute mark and had a 2-1 advantage at the end of the first period.

DeBrincat lit the lamp first for the Red Wings — a pretty timely first tally of the season, just 32 seconds after Stützle. Carter Mazur started the play with a shot that bounced off Ersson's pads and dribbled behind the goal line, where Nate Danielson collected it and snuck it back from the right side of the crease to DeBrincat at the bottom of the left face-off circle for a backhander.

“That was a defining moment, I think, in the game,” McLellan said. “We could have sagged. It was just a simple, direct play. Nothing fancy… I thought (DeBrincat) had a tremendous game tonight. I thought he played really well. He was all over the place.”

Then, at 13:13, Larkin gave Detroit its first lead of the season when he scored in front off assists from Arvidsson and DeBrincat.

“He’s a hockey player,” McLellan said of Larkin. “Once he puts the equipment on, he just goes and plays hockey. Had an impact on the game. I think he played with his heart on his sleeve, which is a real good thing for him. He needed to do that tonight, and he did it.”

The Red Wings added two more tallies in the opening five minutes of the second period, with Arvidsson putting a rebound home on the power play at 2:01 and Justin Faulk making a highlight-reel finish at even strength at 4:30. Larkin and Raymond assisted on Arvidsson's second goal of the season, while William Wallinder and Raymond set up Faulk's first.

“I just try to play my game, compete, win pucks and battles, and go to the net,” Arvidsson said. “I got rewarded twice, so I just got to keep doing it.”

Notably, Wallinder became the first Detroit blueliner to record a point in his NHL debut since Moritz Seider, who picked up two assists on Oct. 14, 2021 versus the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“I thought he had a good game,” McLellan said of Wallinder. “It’s not easy to play with seven defensemen… When you’re that 6/7 guy in the rotation, it’s a little bit harder. You’re waiting, you’re waiting, you’re waiting and then your name gets called, and you have to perform, but he did a good job.”

Drake Batherson's power-play goal trimmed the Senators' deficit to 4-2 at 6:08 of the second period, and William Eklund made it a one-goal game at 10:30 of the third. 

But DeBrincat sealed it at 19:10 with his second goal of the game, scoring on Detroit's fifth power play of the night into an empty net. The assists went to Raymond and Faulk.

"It wasn’t always pretty, but we held our ground and we had contributions from a lot of different people in different ways," McLellan said.

NEXT UP: Detroit will try to carry over this positive momentum when it faces the Seattle Kraken at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night.

POSTGAME QUOTES

McLellan on Detroit’s penalty kill, which went 4-for-5 on Tuesday

“Yes, we made some improvements. There’s still work to do there. There’s certainly work to do, and we’ll keep approaching it, but the penalty kill didn’t let us down tonight. We’re not going to be perfect. We don’t expect to be. They got one, but there’s other areas, even when we’re not getting scored on, that we can clean up, but we’ll keep working on it.”

Larkin on the home crowd’s response

“I’m trying to be a man and face it, and I understand why that’s happening. But again, like I said to you guys at the start of the season, I was going to try and show up with my play. It was nice to be out there with the guys and get a win.”

Larkin on his reaction and feeling after scoring his first-period goal

“I didn’t want to offend anyone with over-celebrating, with knowing the situation that’s going on. But again, with all that, scoring a goal in the NHL, scoring a goal for this team when we needed it, it felt pretty good.”

Arvidsson on the differences in Tuesday’s win compared to Sunday’s loss

“Our start to the game was really good. I thought we came out ready. We were shooting the puck and going to the net. We got rewarded early, so that was good.”