Larkin's 2nd goal lifts Red Wings past Senators in OT

OTTAWA -- Dylan Larkin, fresh off winning a gold medal with Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026, scored his second goal of the game at 1:50 of overtime to give the Detroit Red Wings a 2-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

Lucas Raymond sent a pass into the offensive zone, and Larkin beat Shane Pinto to the puck before sliding a backhander between the pads of Linus Ullmark for the game-winner.

“It felt good tonight,” Larkin said. “You know it’s a lot different than an Olympic gold medal game against Canada, but you know that goal is huge for our team, and it’s been so great being back with the guys, and they’ve been so great to me since I’ve been back. And to score that one tonight, it’s up there. It feels pretty special.”

Raymond had two assists, and John Gibson made 26 saves for the Red Wings (34-19-6), who had lost four of five (1-3-1).

“It was good, I mean, you want to get back and start on the right note and thought we did that tonight and battled the whole game,” Gibson said. “They’re a good team, tough building to play in and big win.” 

Brady Tkachuk scored, and Ullmark made 18 saves for the Senators (28-22-8), who are 5-1-1 in their past seven games.

“I definitely felt we deserved a better result,” Tkachuk said. “I thought we did a lot of great things tonight. Their goalie stood on his head, had a great game, and yeah, it’s just unfortunate we didn’t get the two points that we wanted. 

It was the first game for each team following the break for the Olympics.

“After the first two shifts, we were processing the game slowly,” Detroit coach Todd McLellan said. “We were reacting slowly, not a lot of execution. I guess the part we liked is we stuck with it in the second and third and found a way to win, keep that team off the board.” 

Michael Rasmussen appeared to give the Red Wings a 1-0 lead at 8:11 of the first period, but Ottawa challenged the play for offside, and the call was reversed after a review.

Tkachuk put the Senators up 1-0 at 18:44 with a wrist shot from the high slot while on the power play. Jake Sanderson's shot from the point deflected off Rasmussen to Tkachuk, who beat Gibson through traffic. Tim Stutzle's secondary assist on the goal extended his point streak to eight games (six goals, five assists).

“I thought our start was phenomenal,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “We got right to our game, and Detroit's a good team, they’re going to push back. They raised their game after the first period.”

Larkin tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 5:24 of the second period, finishing Raymond's backhand pass from the goal line with a snap shot from low in the left circle to the glove side on Ullmark.

“The power play, I think it woke us up a little bit,” Larkin said. "Just hounding pucks and we slowly started to tip the ice.”

A little over two minutes later, Red Wings defenseman Simon Edvinsson was assessed an interference minor against Tkachuk after stepping into him, with Tkachuk’s stick riding up and making contact with his face. Tkachuk fell to the ice, and Dylan Cozens and Edvinsson then fought, resulting in fighting majors for each.

Before play resumed, Tkachuk skated to the penalty box to confront Edvinsson and was assessed a 10-minute misconduct.

“I didn’t know that was kind of an auto 10-minute,” Tkachuk said. “I was just expressing my frustration, and yeah, I didn’t realize that would’ve been a 10-minute. I wouldn’t have done it that way if I knew I was going to get a 10-minute, but you live, and you learn.” 

“Sometimes you lose in overtime, and it feels like you didn’t get anything out of the game,” Green said. “We did, we got a point, quite easily could have had two and gotta get ready for Toronto.” 

NOTES: Larkin scored his 13th career overtime winner and surpassed Sergei Fedorov for the most in franchise history.