rewrite this title Deadspin | Senators look to increase wild-card lead vs. Red Wings

The Ottawa Senators have cooled off, but they still hold the top wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. They’ll look to solidify their position when they visit the struggling Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night.

The Senators lost for the third time in four games on Tuesday, falling to Buffalo, 3-2. Ottawa (37-28-5, 79 points) had a six-game winning streak to take the lead in the wild-card race before the recent slide.

Center Dylan Cozens was especially disappointed, as he was facing his former team. Cozens was traded earlier this month.

“I really wanted to win that game,” he said. “I think we had it at the start. We were in control and we just kind of let them back in it. We should have just kept pushing. And I think (Buffalo goalie James Reimer) made a lot of big saves early on. And we got to bury a few of those.”

The Senators outshot the Sabres, 32-24, won 70.9 percent of the faceoffs and committed just one penalty. Yet they failed to score in 5-on-5 situations, which led to an agonizing result.

“You’re frustrated,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “We needed another goal. The first 14 minutes we probably could have had three goals, so it’s frustrating, especially losing at this time of year. It’s easy to say, probably might easily win this game seven times out of 10. We (need to) be harder around their net.”

The Senators lead the season series against the Red Wings and all three previous meetings have been tight, low-scoring contests. Ottawa won by 2-1 scores on Dec. 5 and March 10, while Detroit won 3-2 in overtime on Jan. 7.

The Red Wings’ nosedive this month was accelerated by Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark in the latest matchup between the clubs. Detroit had 49 shots on goal but only one got past Ullmark. He made 27 of those saves in the second period.

The Red Wings have won just three of their last 13 games. They lost on the road to Colorado, 5-2, on Tuesday.

“We knew what we were up against and we put up a pretty good effort against a real good hockey club,” coach Todd McLellan said. “Obviously it wasn’t enough. The league is full of tough nights. Sometimes you get the (lousy) end of a schedule. But I’m not going to stand up here and say that’s why we lost. We made some mistakes and their good players capitalized.”

Detroit (33-32-6, 72 points) occupied Ottawa’s current position in the standings prior to the slump.

The Red Wings actually led against Colorado on J.T. Compher’s power play goal in the opening period. The Avalanche scored the next four goals.

“Even though the first period turned out 2-1 (Colorado), we handled it real well, created chances and then two or three mistakes and you look at the scoreboard and it’s 3-1 or 4-1 and it’s hard to get that back against that team,” defenseman Moritz Seider said.

With Petr Mrazek and Cam Talbot injured, Alex Lyon got the start in net. He gave up four goals (one was an empty-netter) after allowing just one in an emergency relief stint at Utah the previous night. Talbot could return for Thursday’s contest.

–Field Level Media