Red Wings pounce on Senators early, hold on for 5-3 win

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This article was published 05/01/2026 (276 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – James van Riemsdyk had a goal and an assist to lead the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-3 win over the Ottawa Senators Monday night to snap a two-game losing skid.

Coming off back-to-back losses to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Red Wings (25-15-4) were determined to take care of things against their divisional rivals in the first of four meetings between the two clubs.

Andrew Copp, Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond and Michael Rasmussen also scored, while John Gibson stopped 35 shots.

Brady Tkachuk, Claude Giroux and Dylan Cozens replied for the Senators (20-16-5). With a pair of assists Tim Stutzle extended his point streak to 13 games (eight goals, 13 assists).

Trailing 4-2, Tkachuk brought the Senators within one at 6:55 taking a nice feed from Stutzle for an easy tap in glove side.

Detroit took back-to-back penalties but Ottawa failed to capitalize and gave up a short-handed goal on a Giroux giveaway that led to a 2-on-1 with Rasmussen beating Hunter Shepard, who gave up two goals on 12 shots, glove side.

Ottawa had a goal called back for goaltender interference and despite pulling Shepard with over three minutes remaining could not complete the comeback.

Shepard started the second period — replacing Leevi Merilainen who gave up three goals on eight shots — marking his first appearance with the Senators.

Giroux solved Gibson midway through the second after Fabian Zetterlund won a battle behind the net and fed Giroux out front.

Ottawa made it a one-goal game on the power play when a Jake Sanderson rebound kicked out to Cozens who one-timed it past Gibson. 

Detroit got one back late in the second when Raymond beat Shepard with a wrist shot from the faceoff circle.

The Red Wings blew the game open early, jumping out to a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Ottawa thought it had grabbed the lead on a Nick Cousins goal, but Detroit challenged for offside and the goal was waived off. The Red Wings opened the scoring when Copp pounced on a Tyler Kleven giveaway at centre ice, walked in alone and snapped a shot high glove-side on Merilainen.

Detroit added to the lead on the power play when Alex DeBrincat’s shot kicked out to van Riemsdyk and fed Larkin. And with just 16.4 seconds left in the opening period, van Riemsdyk struck again, beating Merilainen through traffic to make it 3-0.

TAKEAWAYS

Senators: The Senators played a solid game, but early mistakes proved hard to overcome.

Red Wings: Detroit took far too many penalties providing Ottawa with too many chances to get back in the game. 

KEY STAT

Dylan Larkin scored his 264th career goal and tied Nicklas Lidstrom for 11th place on the Red Wings’ all-time list. 

KEY MOMENT

John Gibson came up with a big save on Tim Stutzle late in the second with Ottawa short-handed.

UP NEXT

Red Wings: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.

Senators: Visit the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2026.