OTTAWA (AP)—Nicklas Lidstrom and Detroit’s special teams proved too much for Ottawa.
Lidstrom scored Detroit’s third power-play goal of the game 2:52 into overtime, giving the Red Wings a 3-2 win over the Senators on Saturday night.
Steve Yzerman also scored his second goal this season, after scoring the game-winner with 1.7 seconds left in Detroit’s opener on Thursday night.
Lidstrom’s slap shot from the point beat goalie Patrick Lalime with three seconds left in Zdeno Chara’s interference penalty.
The Red Wings—who had a league-leading 23.8 percent success rate on the power play last season—had eight opportunities in the game. Detroit, which successfully killed four of five penalties, has scored five of its six goals with the man advantage.
“You need to have a strong power play, and penalty killing can win games for you as well,” Lidstrom said. “That’s something we’ve been working on in the last week in practice and it’s been paying off in the first two games for us.”
Yzerman and Tomas Holmstrom also scored power-play goals and Dominik Hasek made 17 saves for his second win since coming out of retirement.
“There were a lot of penalties,” Red Wings left wing Brendan Shanahan said. “I thought there were a lot of bad calls both ways. We got a couple of cheap power plays early on and they got them later. They got the last penalty of the game and we were able to cash in.”
Jason Spezza and Radek Bonk scored for Ottawa, which claimed a hard-earned point in the only regular season meeting between the two teams this season.
“They’re a tough team to play against,” Lidstrom said. “They are playing strong defense. They were putting a lot of pressure on and getting the puck in and forechecking hard.”
Trailing 2-1, the Senators drew even on Bonk’s power-play goal 9:28 into the third.
Ottawa, which trailed only Detroit last season converting 21.2 percent on the power play, has scored on three of eight opportunities.
“It’s tough when you’re in the box that much with the lineup they have,” Spezza said. “I think we showed we can play with them. We just missed a few good chances.”
The Senators signed restricted free agent right wing Martin Havlat to a one-year contract, drawing cheers from the Corel Centre crowd when it was announced between the second and third periods.
Holmstrom opened the scoring 16:59 in as he backhanded a rebound of Mathieu Schneider’s point shot past goalie Patrick Lalime’s glove 18 seconds into Detroit’s second power-play opportunity.
Continuing his comeback from having an osteotomy—a procedure that involved sawing into the bone below his right knee and using a wedge to realign the joint, Yzerman played the entire game at his customary center position and scored 5:45 into the second to put the Red Wings up 2-0.
Yzerman, who played wing on the fourth line in Detroit’s opener, drove to the net and swatted the puck into the open left side as it lay in the crease under the shaft of Lalime’s stick.
“I’m feeling a little bit more comfortable,” Yzerman said. “I’m starting to skate without thinking about my knee or where I’m at or my positioning on the ice. I’m starting to play a little bit more after two games, just playinginstead of thinking my way around the ice.”
Notes
Yzerman scored just two goals in 16 regular season games last season. … Hasek is 24-7-5 in 37 career appearances against Ottawa. … Havlat will have his team physical Sunday and join the team on a West Coast trip whichbegins Wednesday in Los Angeles.
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