RECAP: Kasper’s two-goal night not enough in Red Wings’ 4-3 preseason overtime loss to Senators

DETROIT -- Marco Kasper scored twice, but the Detroit Red Wings couldn’t hold off the Ottawa Senators in a 4-3 preseason overtime loss at Little Caesars Arena on Friday night.

The Red Wings opened the scoring at 1:24 of the first period. Tyler Motte forced a turnover and Marco Kasper scooped up the loose puck, quickly skated to the net and snapped it home for the 1-0 lead.

Kasper made it 2-0 at 8:32, scoring short side off a rush for his second goal of the night. He was assisted by Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and Olli Maatta.

“It always fun to score,” Kasper said. “It’s just trying to win the game and help the team win. It’s always good to score for me, but for a team to get two quick goals.”

Austin Watson, in Training Camp on a professional tryout contract, received a 10-minute game misconduct for jumping into a group of Red Wings and Senators skaters during a skirmish.

“I like that,” Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde said about Watson standing up for his teammates. “It energized our guys. Mo’s a very important player for us. We don’t want him to get into any of those type of situations."

After a scoreless second period, Ottawa cut it to 2-1 at 11:27 of the third when Adam Gaudette buried a rebound. But Detroit punched right back at 15:06, when Vladimir Tarasenko finished J.T. Compher’s feed off the boards to make it 3-1. Maatta recorded the secondary assist for his second point of the night.

The Senators flipped the script late in the third period, scoring a pair of power-play goals to force overtime. Noah Gregor’s first tally of the game made it 3-2 at 15:32. Then Donovan Sebrango, who was part of the trade package Detroit used to acquire Alex DeBrincat from Ottawa ahead of the 2023-24 season, scored a one-timer from the left face-off circle just over a minute later (16:35) to tie it 3-3.

Gregor’s second goal was the decisive one, which he scored 19 seconds into the extra frame.

“I would like to manage our game at the end,” Lalonde said. “Probably the last three goals were all a lack of urgency in our defensive game.”

Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon made 23 saves, while Senators netminder Anton Forsberg stopped 30 shots.

“The good thing is, it doesn’t count yet,” Maatta said about Friday’s loss. “We got to figure out how to close those games out. Our structure isn’t bad, but it’s the compete. Always these games, whoever competes more wins. You can see throughout the league that NHL lineups lose to AHL lineups just because of the compete. Our big message has always been to try get that compete up, even in these games.”

NEXT UP: Detroit will wrap up its exhibition slate on Saturday night, visiting the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena.

POSTGAME QUOTES

Lalonde on Kasper’s Training Camp

“He’s been excellent. Energy, some finish there. He’s had a really good camp. Obviously he won’t be playing tomorrow. We’re not going to put him in a three [games] in three [days] situation, but really good camp. All of our young guys gave us some energy tonight.”

Kasper on what he learned from Friday’s game

“We did a good job on the penalty kill, but we got to try to learn from the mistakes we made. They scored two goals to tie the game. Next time, we got to focus on winning this game.”

Maattta on having toughness against clubs like Ottawa

“We need to stick together. We did that today. That’s the toughness you need. It’s not necessarily fighting, but it’s the team spirit of not backing down and support your teammates. That’s the mindset we’ve had, at least all three years that I’ve been here. We’re going to keep doing that.”

Kasper on what he’s been able to accomplish this preseason

“We’ve worked really hard and had to compete in practices, which is a really important part for us as a team. We’ve had some good periods as well, which helps me and as a team. Just trying to get out there and work really hard to do the best we can, that’s what I’ve tried to do. That’s what everybody has tried to do, and now we just got to get into the game and win.”

Maattaa on what he takes from preseason games

“Big thing is playing with multiple guys, at least as a D-man. I don’t think I’ve ever played a season where I’ve had the same partner for the whole season. Just kind of knowing tendencies of each other.”