Ottawa slams Detroit 5-2 at Canadian Tire Centre
It was a victory worthy of a salute.
After learning they’ll be without two of their top centres for an extended period, the Ottawa Senators had to dig down deep in their 5-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings to end their fourgame winless skid on Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation Night on Wednesday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Opening a three-game homestand in front of 11,026, the Senators deserved the victory, with a solid effort against the Wings. Anthony Duclair, Thomas Chabot and Chris Tierney led the way with two-point efforts while Jean- Gabriel Pageau and Mark Borowiecki chipped in with goals to make life difficult for Detroit goalie Jonathan Bernier.
Making his second straight start, Anders Nilsson was solid in the club’s first win since Oct. 12 against the Tampa Bay Lightning at home.
Tyler Bertuzzi and Darren Helm replied for the Wings as Nilsson shut the door while Detroit pressed in the third. Duclair put it away with an empty-netter.
Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion told reporters before the club’s morning skate centre Colin White is out three to five weeks with a hip flexor injury while centre Artem Anisimov is also gone for at least two weeks with a lower body injury.
Both tried to play through the ailments, but have been placed on injured-reserve.
“We weren’t too pleased with what happened on the road trip and one point out of six isn’t good enough,” Duclair said. “There’s games where you’re going to lose but you’ve got to make sure the effort level is there. Coming back home, in front of the fans, we wanted to make sure we had a good effort, and we had a solid 60 minutes.”
Centre Logan Brown, who played 12:09 with 19 shifts, was summoned from the club’s AHL affiliate in Belleville as he suited up for his seventh NHL game, while minor-league forward J.C. Beaudin made his NHL debut.
This stretch of games is going to put the club’s depth to a test and coach D.J. Smith pointed out it’s an opportunity for somebody else to step up.
“When you say you’re in a rebuild, and you’re starting with a bunch of young guys and a couple of your main cogs get hurt, you’re relying a lot on guys that were maybe depth guys to start the year,” Smith said before facing the Wings.
“Everyone sits in their stall and says, ‘Why not me? Give me my chance,’ so here’s your chance,” Smith said. “If you want to play all the minutes you have to prove you deserve them. Now’s the perfect time for some guys to say, ‘Hey, look at me and look what I can do’ and for guys coming up from the minors, this is their shot.”
The second period featured a flurry of action. The teams combined for four goals in a span of 4:32 to start the frame as the Senators and then Duclair’s second of the season at 17:09 gave the Senators a 4-2 lead going into the third.
Pageau scored a beauty short-handed by firing it past Bernier glove side to give the Senators the lead at 5:27. The Senators must have had the book on Bernier because Borowiecki’s first of the season at 3:15 beat him in the same spot. Borowiecki’s first goal in 21 games tied it up 2-2 just when it looked like
Ottawa was in trouble.
Bertuzzi’s fourth of the season at 2:25 of the second gave the Wings a brief 2-1 lead when he beat Nilsson from the slot. Only 45 seconds into the period, Helm’s blast beat Nilsson to tie it up 1-1 and there was no way he could stop that one. Those two could have forced the Senators on their heels but they bounced back.
“It was really nice to stand back there today and see how hard the guys worked in front of me,” said Nilsson, who stopped 34 shots. “We outworked from the first minute to the last. It was a very solid game from our point. It was nice to see we got rewarded with the hard work.”
For the most part, the Senators shouldn’t have any complaints about their effort in the first period. Yes, they were outshot by the Wings 12-11, but got the saves they needed from Nilsson and pulled out to a 1-0 lead.
“You watch that game and maybe they’re a little tired on the back-to-back but we just kind of smothered them,” Borowiecki said. “That’s the type of hockey we have to play to be successful and we’ve going to slowly figure that out.
“If we can bring that kind of effort from everyone we’re going to put ourselves in a good spot.”
BROWN’S BIG CHANCE
There were no shortage of eyes on Brown because there was plenty of debate when he was sent to Belleville at the end of camp.
Dorion and Smith wanted the 21-year-old to have the opportunity to go down there and play big minutes before returning to the NHL.
Of course, the injuries altered that timeline.
“I thought he had a good camp, but we wanted him to play a lot of minutes,” Smith said before facing the Wings. “To start the year with all the centres we had, we didn’t see an opportunity for him to play more than 10 minutes a night and we didn’t think that was any good for his development.
“We’re in a situation where we have two centres down, we were trying to hold him there as long as possible so he could play and develop. Fortunately for him, and I guess unfortunately for us, he’s coming up. My job is to make sure he gets an opportunity to play. This is about development and making sure these young kids are better.”
Smith said he has no doubt in his mind that Brown eventually will be in the NHL for good. bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarrioch