RECAP: Larkin, Gibson lead the way in Red Wings' 2-1 overtime road win over Senators

OTTAWA -- Carrying over his strong play from the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, captain Dylan Larkin scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals for the Detroit Red Wings in their 2-1 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday night.

“It’s great to get this one,” said Larkin, who notched his 13th career NHL overtime goal to pass Sergei Fedorov (12) for the most in franchise history. “Man, what a performance by John Gibson -- picking up where he left off for us. We just hung in there. We weren’t the sharpest in the first, but our game grew as it went on…Tough to do in this building, weathered the storm and got two huge points.”

This marked the first clash back from the NHL’s Olympic break for both Detroit (34-19-6; 74 points) and Ottawa (28-22-8; 64 points), with netminder John Gibson making 26 saves and goalie Linus Ullmark stopping 18 shots for their respective Atlantic Division clubs.

“After the first two shifts, we were processing the game and reacting slowly,” Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan said. “Not a lot of execution. I guess the part we liked is we stuck with it in the second and third, and found a way to win.”

Gibson, making his first start in 22 days, certainly showed no signs of rust and made a sequence of big saves in the first period -- among them, an impressive stick save on Dylan Cozens just 4:17 into the game. The Red Wings later had a tally by Michael Rasmussen called back after a successful offside challenge from the Senators, who broke the ice when captain Brady Tkachuk found the back of the net on a power play to take a 1-0 kead at 18:44.

“I just try to play my game and focus on that,” Gibson said. “If I sat here and told you that I could draw it all up, I’d be lying to you. You can’t control the bounces and all that, so I’m just trying to keep the puck out of the net and give us a chance.”

Detroit’s three Olympians – Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider – teamed up for a power-play goal to even things up 1-1 at 5:24 of the second period. Seider passed up the wall to Raymond, who walked the goal line before finding Larkin in the left face-off circle for a one-timer past Ullmark.

Larkin noted he felt the contest started to turn after scoring his 27th goal of the campaign.

“I think [the power play] woke us up a little bit,” Larkin said. “Just hounding pucks, and we slowly started to tilt the ice. We hung onto pucks down low. I thought we probably had some more O-zone time than we had in a long time.”

Play got increasingly chippy as the middle frame progressed, especially after a brief tilt between Edvinsson and Cozens at 12:20. Cozens dropped the gloves to defend Tkachuk, who had collided with Edvinsson moments earlier and fell to the ice. Even on their way and even in their respective penalty boxes, Ottawa’s 26-year-old captain and Detroit’s 23-year-old blueliner exchanged verbal pleasantries.

“He’d probably tell you that wasn’t his best game tonight,” McLellan said of Edvinsson, who missed seven straight games with a lower-body injury before the Olympic break. “He’s been out for a month-and-a-half, so he’s going to have to find it. But he has such a huge impact when he’s in, and even a bigger impact when he’s out.”

Each Atlantic Division club was held scoreless in the third period, sending the game to overtime. Less than two minutes into the extra session, Raymond sprung Larkin on a breakaway with a perfectly placed pass into the offensive zone, and the Red Wings’ newest gold medalist slid backhander through Ullmark’s pads for his 28th goal of the season at 1:50.

“I felt good tonight,” Larkin said. “It’s a lot different than a big gold-medal game against Canada, but that goal is huge for our team. It’s been so great being back with the guys and they’ve been so great to me since I’ve been back. To score that one tonight, it’s up there. It feels pretty special.”

NEXT UP: The Red Wings will continue their three-game road when face off against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Saturday night.

WHAT WAS SAID

McLellan on how this divisional clash played out

“To keep that team off the board your goaltender has to do a real good job, and Gibby did that…To find the winner in overtime for the extra point, at this time of the year, those are huge. We’ll take the game. We know we got work to do, obviously, and we’ll move on.”

Larkin on Edvinsson being back in the lineup

“He’s such a factor for us. He’s such a big-game player. It’s nice having him back. He stood up for himself. They just collided and he answered the bell, and good on him.”

Gibson on Thursday’s overtime win

“It was good. You want to get back and start on the right note, and I thought we did that tonight and battled the whole game. They’re a good team, tough building to play in and a big win.”