After losing 3-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, the Wings were hoping to avoid back-to-back losses tonight against the Ottawa Senators. But the Wings’ hopes were to no avail, as they lost 3-1 to the Senators in a close game in which the Wings never seemed to truly control the play.
It was a disappointing performance, but not an alarming one. Andrew Hammond had a great night in net for the Senators, while the Wings were not able to capitalize on the few good scoring chances that they had.
Here is what happened:
1st Period
Play in the first period flowed between the Wings and the Senators with neither team managing to gain a solid control of the game.
Five minutes into the period, however, the Wings nearly gifted the Senators with a goal after a series of turnovers. Moments later, the Senators did score but the goal was called off for goalie interference.
With just over a minute left in the period the Senators managed to take the lead. Kyle Turris scored after a great set up by Mark Stone. Three Red Wings‘ players tried to take the puck away from Turris but no one was able to gain possession of it, giving Ottawa the 1-0 lead.
2nd Period
The second period began more favorably for the Red Wings. On a powerplay five minutes into the period, Dylan Larkin faced an empty net and nearly managed to tie the game up for the Wings, but his shot missed the goal.
The Wings’ hopes of tying the game up were dealt a tough blow after Matt Puempel scored halfway through the period to give the Senators a 2-0 lead.
After this the game was halted for a few minutes as a result of a broken glass panel that had to be fixed. The extra rest that both sides were provided as a result of this ended up aiding the Wings, as they finally managed to score. The Wings found themselves on a 5-on-3 powerplay when Teemu Pulkkinen let loose a shot. The shot rebounded to Henrik Zetterberg who buried the puck cutting the Senators’ lead in half.
Moments later, the Wings nearly tied the game up. Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist coordinated on a nice play sequence which resulted in Nyquist letting loose a shot that was ultimately stopped by Hammond.
3rd Period
The third period was not going to be much different from the previous two. Midway through the period Justin Abdelkader was nearly able to tie the game, but Andrew Hammond again prevented the Wings from scoring.
Not long thereafter Riley Sheahan set up Joakim Andersson for a great scoring attempt but Andersson was not able to get a shot off.
The Wings continued to try to tie the game, but ultimately were not able to, with Bobby Ryan’s empty net goal solidifying the Senators’ win.
By no means were the Wings horrible tonight, but they were not great either. After a very good start to their season, the Red Wings have not been able to convert decent play into wins, and tonight was another one of those games.
There are certainly a lot of bright spots on this team, and the season is still very young, but the Wings are mediocre at the moment. This is a team that has higher aspirations than mediocrity, and hopefully those aspirations will translate into more wins soon.
Next up for the Red Wings are the Senators again tomorrow night at 7PM in Ottawa.
Let’s Go Red Wings!
