Tomas Tatar saves Red Wings with overtime victor against Senators

“Some guys just have that gift of knowing where to be, knowing where the puck’s going to be and when they get it, it comes off their stick like nothing else”, Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall said.

Ultimately, the Red Wings got off to a bad start in the overtime period, most notably Pavel Datsyuk falling down at center ice, and were unable to match the speed of the Capitals. Two minutes in, the Senators grouping of Zibanejad, Ceci, and Turris lose the puck, mainly because of bad decision making from Ceci who chose to advance the puck forward when he lacked support from the forwards, and Tomas Tatar slips a quick wrist shot past Anderson on the partial break. Mrazek stopped 38 shots against the Caps last week. Wideman’s third goal of the season tied him with Karlsson for the club lead among defencemen. We’ve got to find a way to win these games at home.

Ovechkin SilencedWashington sniper Alex Ovechkin, still seeking his 484th goal to surpass former Wing Sergei Fedorov as NHL’s all-time leading Russian goal scorer, fired four shots on goal in the game’s first five minutes, then just two the rest of the way.

According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetDSI, the Senators are -115 money line favorites over the Red Wings, who have odds of -105 to pull off the small upset. “Coaches are scratching their heads as well, because preparation, from what I’ve seen, hasn’t been the issue. A lot of it though is fixable so that’s the one positive”.

“What happened in the first was AA (Andreas Athanasiou) and Pulkky (Teemu Pulkkinen) didn’t play at all”, Detroit coach Jeff Blashill said.

The Red Wings increased their lead to 3-1 late in the second period as Sheahan got credit for a goal that was the result of a flawless storm.

NOTES Jared Cowan, Shane Prince and Andrew Hammond were the scratches for the Senators….

To paraphrase that old Styx tune, the Detroit Red Wings had too much (penalty) time on their hands (to kill). It was the third time in his career he has scored in three consecutive games…Tomas Tatar played his 200th National Hockey League game Monday, all with the Red Wings.