REPORT: Once more, the Red Wings have triumphed over the Senators with.....

DETROIT In addition to earning two valuable points against an Atlantic Division opponent, the Detroit Red Wings maintained their position as one of the NHL’s hottest teams by extending their winning run to five games in a row Tuesday night at Little Caesars Arena with a 3-2 overtime victory against the Ottawa Senators.

Joe Veleno stated, “Anytime you can get some wins, especially against divisional opponents, it’s huge for a team.” We’re playing pretty well right now, in my opinion. We must have the same mindset regardless of who our opponent is.

That applies to the remaining games, but these are undoubtedly excellent two points. It will always be difficult to play Ottawa. Although we have somewhat developed that rivalry, we are happy that we won this one.

Detroit (18-18-4; 40 points) moved back to the .500 mark with its win over Ottawa (19-17-3; 41 points), but head coach Todd McLellan said he wants his club to keep focusing on its process and playing the right way.

“I think that’s a really good thing, but .500 is just .500,” McLellan said. “That gets you nothing really in the League, but to crawl back the way we have is important. I did tell the players to quit worrying about wins and losses, streaks, playoffs. Just play the game. Make mistakes. Play well, we’ll fix it the next day. Later on, we’ll look at the standings. I’m aware we’re at .500, but I’m not overly concerned or too excited about it.”

It was a chippy start to Tuesday’s Atlantic Division clash, and at 7:07 of the first period, Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was handed a roughing minor to send the Red Wings to their first power play of the night. Just 1:23 into that man advantage, captain Dylan Larkin capped off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Alex DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond for the 1-0 lead.

Stretching his point streak to six straight games and goal streak to four, Larkin moved into a tie with DeBrincat for the team lead in goals (17). Additionally, DeBrincat’s primary assist was his 100th career NHL point with the Red Wings, marking the fewest games (122) for a player to notch his first 100 career points with the franchise since Brendan Shanahan (93 games on Nov. 9, 1997).

“It’s been incredible,” Patrick Kane said about Detroit’s play with an extra skater as of late. “Every time we go out there, we feel like we can score. The production has been really high, so obviously we want to continue that. We know it’s not realistic to score two every night. I think it’s been a huge reason for success, and we got to keep that rolling.”

Due to an upper-body ailment, Detroit goalie Alex Lyon stopped all ten of the shots he faced in the first period before Cam Talbot took over as the goalie to start the second. In place of Lyon, who McLellan stated would “probably have a better answer” about Talbot’s status on Thursday, Talbot made 21 saves.

According to McLellan, “[Lyon] felt something near the end of the first period, came in between periods, got with the training staff, and they felt it would be best that he didn’t continue on.” He’s going to be tested. After the game, I’m already working on them; tomorrow, I’ll have more.

At 12:25 of the second period, Thomas Chabot scored the first goal when his shot from the point bounced off Tyler Motte’s stick and found twine, moments after an Ottawa power play ended. Simon Edvinsson exited the game after Jonatan Berggren’s penalty kick, but he came back for the third.

“The collision was a bit awkward for him,” McLellan said about Edvinsson exiting the game. “Sometimes, you get a stinger or something like that, and you just got to get a little strength back. He came back and played really well.”

With 55 seconds to go in the second period, Tkachuk’s shot from above the left face-off circle got through a screen and found the back of the net for a power-play goal to give the Senators a 2-1 lead.

“There was a little bit of a challenge to the group there,” McLellan said. “A brand-new experience for all of us. What are we going to do when we’re down by one? Down by five against Toronto, completely different. But to the guys’ credit, I thought in the third [period] we skated a little bit better. In the second, we didn’t.”

Getting to the right place at the right time, Veleno saw the rebound from Edvinsson’s shot kick out to him in the slot before he flipped it over Ottawa netminder Anton Forsberg while falling to tie it 2-2 at 5:00 of the third period. Motte got the secondary assist on Veleno’s fifth goal of the season.

“I think we were struggling a little bit offensively, just sustaining O-zone pressure and keeping the puck in the zone,” Veleno said. “It was a big moment to score a goal. Obviously, I got a little excited, just glad I can contribute, tie that game and give us a chance to win.”

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REPORT: Once more, the Red Wings have triumphed over the Senators with…..

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