Norris scores twice, lifts Senators past Red Wings

OTTAWA -- Josh Norris scored twice, including the game-winning goal with 43 seconds left, for the Ottawa Senators in a 2-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

“Before the game we said we’re [going to] win it 2-1, and we won 2-1,” Norris said. “Good job by the guys just hanging in there. I thought we played for each other.”

Norris took a pass from Drake Batherson as he entered the offensive zone and ended it with a wrist shot into the top left corner from the middle of the slot.

“That’s a tough one,” Detroit captain Dylan Larkin said. “We think we’re getting a point, we played well enough to get two points and we get zero with [43] seconds left.

“There’s no reason we shouldn’t still be playing that game in overtime right now.”

Batherson had two assists, and Linus Ullmark made 19 saves for the Senators (11-12-2), who had lost two straight.

“There’s been a lot of talk of our team slipping a little bit when things aren’t going their way and we just stayed the course,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “We took what the game gave us but earned a win.”

Alex DeBrincat scored, and Ville Husso made 30 saves for the Red Wings (10-12-4), who have lost four in a row (0-2-2).

Detroit was 1-for-3 on the power play. Ottawa was 0-for-5.

“We won the special teams battle, we gave up two goals on the road,” Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde said. “We’re going to look back, we outchanced them 5-on-5, this is a game you hope to take at least a point out of. Unfortunately, we didn’t there in the end.”

Norris gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 12:14 of the first period, finding his own rebound at the top of the crease and stuffing in a backhand at the right post.

“Josh is a really good player,” Green said. “He’s gone through some things in the past. His game is a little bit up and down and I think part of that is just mentally being focused every night, not playing a lot of hockey but when he plays the way he did tonight he’s a hell of a player. I think we’re seeing him find his game as he moves along the season. I still think what you see tonight could be his everyday game.”

Ottawa thought it had extended its lead to 2-0 at 4:29 of the second period when Batherson scored a power-play goal, but it was overturned after a successful challenge for offside.

“We saw some important character there in the end when we had a lot of momentum most of the game, and then they tied it up,” Senators defenseman Nick Jensen said. “And we saw in the past where that kind of takes a lot of air out of our tires a little bit, but it didn’t really change how we played and I think we got rewarded for that.”

DeBrincat one-timed a pass from J.T. Compher on a 4-on-3 power play to tie it 1-1 at 6:15 of the third period.

“We just battled,” Larkin said. “Our penalty kill was good, ‘Huss’ was good. It was a tight checking game; it was a playoff-style game. We had looks, we had looks there at the end in the third period. We didn’t capitalize and they go down and score, and it stings for sure.

“It’s time to start playing some hockey and not just [settle] for an overtime loss or get one point. We’ve got to get two points.”

NOTES: DeBrincat tied Matthew Tkachuk (225) for the second-most goals among the 2016 NHL Draft class. … Detroit forward Lucas Raymond had his point streak end at eight games (seven goals, four assists. … Red Wings forward Patrick Kane had three shots in 15:16 of ice time in his return after missing five games with an upper-body injury. … With an assist on Norris’ first goal, Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk passed Marian Hossa (202) for ninth on the franchise’s all-time assists list.