Senators squash Red Wings 6-1, eye wild-card spot

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OTTAWA – With a 6-1 win Tuesday night, the Ottawa Senators swept their two-game series against the Detroit Red Wings — and started a new rivalry.

Tim Stutzle led the way with a goal — scored on a first-period penalty shot — and two assists. Austin Watson had a pair of goals, while Claude Giroux, Alex DeBrincat and Brady Tkachuk also scored.

Mads Sogaard picked up his fourth NHL victory stopping 16 shots.

Dominik Kubalik scored the lone goal for the Red Wings, while Ville Husso made 21 saves.

Ottawa followed its 6-2 win on Monday with another commanding performance.

The win gives the Senators (30-26-4) 64 points, tying them with Detroit (28-24-8) and keeps them in the hunt for a wild-card berth in the highly contested Eastern Conference. There are six teams, including the Senators and Red Wings, all vying for a playoff spot.

Ottawa took control of the game midway through the first and didn’t let up.

Detroit opened the scoring three minutes in when Kubalik beat Sogaard with a weak shot glove side, but it was all Senators the rest of the way.

Stutzle tied the game on a penalty shot, the first of his career, and Watson scored his first of the night short-handed beating Husso up high.

Watson scored his second of the night tapping in a Derick Brassard pass, but took a high stick from David Perron moments after cutting his nose wide open. DeBrincat scored his 20th on the ensuing power play to make it 4-1.

The Senators are the first team in NHL regular-season history to score a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, an even-strength goal and a penalty-shot goal on four separate goals in a single period.

The period also featured an unlikely duo exchanging punches, although very few were actually thrown, as Ottawa’s Artem Zub had his first NHL fight against Tyler Bertuzzi.

Ottawa made it 5-1 with a second power-play goal when Giroux got a shot through traffic from the blue line.

Tkachuk rounded out the scoring tipping a shot from Giroux.

NOTES

Ottawa’s Parker Kelly was a healthy scratch for the fourth straight game. Detroit will be without Michael Rasmussen indefinitely with a lower-body injury.

UP NEXT

The Senators head to New York to take on the Rangers Thursday night, while the Red Wings will host the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2023.