Embattled Dylan Larkin turned boos into cheers from the home crowd with a goal and an assist in his season debut as the Detroit Red Wings notched their first win of the season by topping the Ottawa Senators, 5-3, on Tuesday night.
Larkin, the team’s former captain who has requested a trade, missed Detroit’s first two games due to an upper-body injury. Alex DeBrincat had two goals and an assist and Viktor Arvidsson contributed a goal and an assist. Justin Faulk also scored, Lucas Raymond contributed three assists and John Gibson made 22 saves.
Tim Stutzle, Drake Batherson and William Eklund each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa. Samuel Ersson made 31 saves.
Stutzle, who scored twice against Boston on Monday, had the first goal of the game just 2:44 into the contest. His shot deflected off defenseman Ben Chiarot’s stick and beat Gibson on the stick side. Batherson and Ridly Greig had the assists.
DeBrincat scored 32 seconds later, converting a backhander after a scramble around the net. Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur picked up the assists.
Larkin broke the tie at 13:14 of the period, shortly after Ottawa killed off a penalty. He scored in front off an Arvidsson feed with DeBrincat collecting the second assist.
Arvidsson scored on a power play at 2:01 of the second period to make it 3-1. He banged in a rebound of a Larkin shot. Raymond had the other assist.
Faulk split defenders and beat Ersson on the glove side to extend the Red Wings’ lead to three goals at the 4:30 mark. William Wallinder and Raymond were credited with assists.
Batherson responded in front on a power play at 6:08 of the period to cut Detroit’s lead to 4-2. Eklund and Carter Yakemchuk supplied the assists.
Eklund collected a puck off the end boards and fired it into the net with 9:30 remaining in the game to make it 4-3. Fabian Zetterlund and Stutzle had the assists.
DeBrincat’s power-play empty-netter after the Red Wings had killed off a penalty secured the victory.
