The Red Wings redeemed themselves for a bad start to the season. Mike Green scored a hat trick along with Darren Helm’s pair of goals that helped beat the Ottawa Senators 5-1 at Joe Louis Arena on opening night Monday. Petr Mrazek made 31 saves on the night that gave him his first win in three starts with many more to come.
Detroit needed a much better performance on opening night after a dismal run in Florida. The Red Wings showed talent from a few while the rest had lackluster nights allowing power plays to do in the hands of their foes. Detroit has been outscored. 10-5 while on the road needing a serious change if they wanted to have their fans support. It became especially important as it would be the last time Detroit would have a home opener at the Joe Louis Arena. With it being very important to find success, the entire Red Wings squad needed to be at their best.
They had some trouble getting shots on Ottawa goalie Andrew Hammond who earned the start. He dealt with two shots from Detroit before his team were awarded the opening power play. Mrazek saw action right away with the PK unit looking a little off key on defense. They changed things up with Jonathan Ericsson challenging a fight with Dion Phaenuf. The Detroit defenseman got in some shots on the former Toronto captain before officials broke up the fight.
The action only added energy to the Senators who increased their shots to the net on Mrazek. He kept the puck out during their offensive surge giving Detroit time with the puck. The Red Wings nearly had a scoring chance when Hammond lost his stick and skated away from the net. The Senators got lucky with a blown whistle that brought play to a brief halt. During the break, the Detroit Red Wings delivered a tribute to Mr. Hockey Gordie Howe who passed away back on June. 10.
Kind words from Wayne Gretzky and Steve Yzerman were followed by all the fans holding up the number nine in celebration of his long life and career. When play resumed, the Red Wings might have gained energy from the video as they scored minutes later with Green scoring a goal on a great turnover taking the opening lead. “I thought the guys did a good job coming out of the gate creating a lot of pressure on their D and some turnovers,” Green said to Fox Sports Detroit’s Trevor Thompson. “Vanek made some great plays out there and I was just shooting the puck. Those guys made great plays.”
Detroit made it 2-0 just two and a half minutes later with Helm earning his second of the season putting in a lot of speed in the period. After getting another turnover in their zone, Captain Henrik Zetterberg set up Helm who took off with the puck firing a snap shot to the stick side. Adding another chance to widen the gap, Detroit got on the power play and let the Senators have it. They spent the entire two minutes in the Ottawa zone with Tomas Tatar trying to get a piece of the net.
For the second time, Tomas Vanek helped out with a great pass out front to Green who fired the puck from the blue line down the line to get his second of the night. With so many good things occurring in the first 20 minutes, it allowed the Red Wings to outshoot Ottawa 13-9 and have the power play come alive for them.
The Senators were well aware that something better had to come to light at the start of the second period. They began by getting more chances on the Detroit net that inevitably got them dead even on shots on goal. The Senators put Detroit on the power play but a bad transition worked against them.
Ottawa took off into the Detroit zone shorthanded where Ryan Dzingel fired a shot at the stick of Riley Sheahan which sent the puck into the net. Kyle Turris got credit for the goal that gave him his third of the season while Dzingel and captain Erik Karlsson getting the assists. The Senators spent the rest of the period outdueling the Red Wings who lost some of their speed to end 40 minutes. Ottawa outshot Detroit 14-5 in hopes that they could close the gap that Detroit had going into the third.
Both teams got chances on the power play with neither able to convert a goal during the man advantage. The scuffles were more than active on ice with the Senators using their frustration to break Detroit. Justin Abdelkader got his chance for a one on one with Chris Neil getting a great hit to the head of the Ottawa Forward.
Things calmed down a bit but with plenty of time on the clock, Green still had a chance to get it done. Waiting patiently for a shot, the defenseman skated backward eyeing a line drive where he flew through the traffic hitting the top shelf for a hat trick. It was the second time that Detroit scored a hat trick with Abdelkader being the last to pull off the feat.
The game was becoming a clear victory for the Red Wings as Helm added his second on the power play. Full control by Detroit led Vanek to set up the Detroit native to make it 5-1. The remaining time quickly fell off the clock that gave the Red Wings a well-deserved win in front of their fans to begin their fight on home ice. “It was imperative that we get off through this start here at home and establish some energy and I thought we did a good job at that.”
Ending the two game losing streak was a relief to the entire team including coach Jeff Blashill who saw major improvements in their victory. “It’s a hockey game that we had to win for sure, he said to the media. “I would also say that we want to leave our mark in this organization and it was great to get a big win here in the last home opener.”
While they wished to keep things at home, the Red Wings schedule would take them away from Detroit facing the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden Wednesday.
Photo by: Dave Reginek/Getty Images
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