Kanata, Ontario − The Red Wings will want to forget about this little series in Ottawa.
The Wings’ chase for the playoffs hit a roadblock in Canada’s capital city, with the Senators completing a sweep of the two-game, back-to-back series Tuesday 6-1.
The Wings (28-24-8, 64 points) dropped their third consecutive game and failed to gain ground on the teams above them in the chase for an Eastern Conference wild-card chase, while watching Ottawa (30-26-4, 64 points) draw even with them.
The New York Islanders (70 points) and Pittsburgh (69 points) both earned points Tuesday and own the wild-card slots. Buffalo and Florida each have 66, while the Wings, Ottawa and Washington all have 64 points.
These were costly losses.
“We’re pretty down,” captain Dylan Larkin said. “This one, both of these (games), it’s just not the way we wanted this trip to go. We’re definitely leaving with our tails between our legs. It’s a tough feeling.”
BOX SCORE: Senators 6, Red Wings 1
Unlike the night before (during a 6-2 loss), when the second period doomed the Wings, Tuesday it was a disastrous first period that sunk the Wings.
After Dominik Kubalik opened the scoring with his 17th goal, Ottawa roared back with four consecutive goals in the period.
Ottawa scored on a penalty shot goal, shorthanded breakaway, a goal on the rush with a penalty on the rush, and scoring on the resulting power play. Ottawa simply blitzed the Wings.
If there was an area in particular that disappointed coach Derek Lalonde, it was special teams.
“Our poor execution on special teams,” Lalonde said. “We were ready to play, we had some bite to our game early, and then just the inability to execute, especially on the special teams. We’ve taken a lot of pride all year on not allowing easy offense and the breakaways, the odd-man rushes, poor (goaltender) Ville (Husso), that’s an impossible game for a goalie. He never got comfortable.
“We never gave him a chance and it just got away from us.”
Tim Stutzle scored on a penalty shot (4 minutes, 8 seconds), Ann Arbor’s Austin Watson scored with Ottawa shorthanded (7:52), Watson scored again, his sixth goal, at 15:46, and Farmington Hills’ Alex DeBrincat capped the barrage with a power-play goal 23 seconds later.
Suddenly, the Senators were up 4-1 and the game was essentially over.
“Some of it is self-inflicted,” forward David Perron said. “We went to the box too much, I was guilty of that myself, and sometimes unlucky plays, but you have to find a way to stay out of it.”
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The outcome proved to be disappointing, losing two games to an Ottawa team battling alongside the Wings in the playoff race.
“It’s an opportunity we missed,” Perron said.
The Wings had been so effective on special teams leading into these two games against Ottawa, but struggled against the Senators.
Tuesday, the Wings were scoreless on eight power-play attempts, while Ottawa scored two goals on six attempts.
“Our breakout wasn’t clicking, we weren’t on the same page,” Perron said. “They did some adjustments. The power play ease a lot of pressure on your team and if you can get going, it doesn’t have to be goals but we didn’t provide momentum either.
“That was the frustrating part for me.”
Ottawa also outshot the Wings 27-17.
The complexion of Tuesday’s game turned after Watson’s shorthanded goal gave the Senators the lead for good.
Stutzle’s penalty-shot goal matched Kubalik’s goal, but got the Senators’ fans and bench re-energized.
On the power play, Filip Hronek’s attempted blind drop pass slid through a pair of Wings and landed on Watson’s stick, who scored on a breakaway against Husso.
Goals from the local natives, Watson and DeBrincat, 23 seconds apart cemented the outcome.
“Credit to them (Ottawa), obviously they played two real good games,” Lalonde said. “They executed well, which we did not. This is unchartered territory for us in that we had been playing so well of late. We just have to ask the guys to bounce back on Thursday (at home, against Seattle).”
The Wings may have also suffered some bad news on the injury front.
Hronek only played eight minutes, and none after the middle of the second period, the Wings announcing after the second period Hronek was out for the remainder of the evening with an upper-body injury.
“We’ll evaluate but he had to leave the game, it’s something he went into the game (with), so we’ll evaluate and have a better feeling (Wednesday or Thursday),” Lalonde said.
ted.kulfan@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @tkulfan