Red Wings beat Senators in shootout
DETROIT -- Evgeny Svechnikov, making his NHL debut, scored in the seventh round of the shootout to give the Detroit Red Wings a 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Monday.
Svechnikov, the only shooter to score in the skills competition, beat Craig Anderson with a backhand deke move, slipping the puck through the Ottawa goalie's legs.
Ottawa (41-27-10) slipped a point behind the Toronto Maple Leafs in the race for second place in the Atlantic Division. The Senators are tied with the Bruins for third, though Ottawa has a game in hand on Boston. Toronto beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 on Monday, and the Bruins were idle.
The Senators welcomed back captain Erik Karlsson, who was a surprise starter after missing two games with a foot injury, and he tied the game at 2-2 on the power play 56 seconds into the third period with a strange tally.
Skating into the corner of the rink below the Detroit goal line, Karlsson centered the puck. Detroit goalie Petr Mrazek went down to play it, and the puck took a strange hop, hitting his stick and deflecting into the net through his five hole.
Karlsson was in the penalty box for tripping when Detroit went back in front at 5:53. Gustav Nyquist chipped the puck over a sprawling Anderson.
Nyquist scored again on the power play at the eight-minute mark when he deflected Mike Green's point shot past Anderson.
Only 22 seconds later, Kyle Turris snapped a wrist by Mrazek on the stick side and the Senators were back within a goal.
Ottawa tied the game again at 12:31 when Fredrik Claesson's shot sailed past Mrazek's glove and found the net.
The Red Wings (32-35-12) opened the scoring 40 seconds into the second period after a fortunate carom. Frans Nielsen's pass from behind the Ottawa net hit the left skate of Senators defenseman Ben Harpur and banked into the net between the pads of Anderson.
The advantage lasted just 1:06 as Mrazek muffed Alexandre Burrows' wrist shot, with the puck bouncing off his trapper and in at 1:46.
Detroit regained the lead at 6:57 of the period while playing a man down. Dylan Larkin skated in with the puck and, as he was about to pass the Senators net, lifted a backhand shot that snuck in between Anderson and the post. The goal was the third short-handed tally of the season for the Red Wings.
NOTES: F Colin White, an alternate captain with Team USA's world junior gold medal-winning team this season, signed a three-year entry-level deal with the Senators and made his NHL debut. ... Red Wings scratches were F Drew Miller, F Luke Glendening (ankle), F Anthony Mantha (finger) and D Ryan Sproul (knee). ... Senators scratches were D Marc Methot (finger), D Cody Ceci (leg), F Zack Smith (upper body), D Jyrki Jokipakka, F Ryan Dzingel and F Chris DiDomenico. ... Detroit F Andreas Athanasiou played his 100th NHL game. ... Detroit F Justin Abdelkader (USA), G Jimmy Howard (USA) and G Petr Mrazek (Czech Republic) all confirmed that they would be playing in the upcoming world championship.