DETROIT -- Ottawa Senators goalie Andrew Hammond made 29 saves to earn his first win of the season in a 3-1 victory against the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena on Friday.
It was Hammond's second start after he missed the first six games of the season while recovering from a groin injury.
"I felt a lot better," said Hammond, who made 28 saves in a 5-4 shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils in his season debut Oct. 22. "… Tonight, I was able to settle in pretty early, and the team played pretty well in front of me. We had great structure throughout the game."
Bobby Ryan had a goal and an assist, and Kyle Turris and Matt Puempel scored for Ottawa (5-3-2), which has won two in a row following a four-game losing streak (0-2-2)
"We needed it. We've got to start to get on a roll," Ryan said. "It's two points in a division road game, a four-point game."
Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit (4-5-1), which lost for the sixth time in seven games (1-5-1). Jimmy Howard made 32 saves.
"We're talking about it," Zetterberg said. "We're trying to do the right things, keep it simple, get the pucks in, play in their end. Obviously, they're going to spend some time in our end. It is frustrating. After the first three games, this is downhill pretty fast. We have bits and pieces here and there where we were showing what we can do, but the lowest level has got to be way higher than this, and it goes for everyone."
Turris opened the scoring with 1:14 left in the first period. He skated across the top of the crease from the bottom of the left circle, then fought off poke-check attempts by Luke Glendening and defenseman Danny DeKeyser before stuffing a shot past Howard for his sixth goal.
Puempel made it 2-0 at 10:10 of the second period with his first goal of the season, converting a centering pass from Ryan while positioned at the left corner of the net.
"Bobby made a great play and I was just trying to get a stick on it, and it managed to squeeze through on the short side," Puempel said.
Zetterberg said the Red Wings need to begin winning net-front battles.
"I think overall this year, we probably have to be a little bit more aggressive in front of our net and also in front of theirs," the Red Wings captain said. "Both their goals, 50-50 pucks that come in and end up on their stick instead of ours."
Zetterberg scored a 5-on-3 power-play goal with three minutes left in the second period by banging in a loose puck from the bottom of the right circle. It was his third goal of the season and the 299th of his NHL career.
"Their D did a better job of keeping us out than our forwards did of getting there," Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. "We're going to have to do a better job of getting to the net."
Ryan scored into an empty net with 55 seconds left for his third goal.
That came after he accidentally iced the puck on a clearing attempt to set up a faceoff in the Ottawa zone with1:03 left.
Hammond made a big glove save on Gustav Nyquist from the inside edge of the left circle with 1:24 left in the second period, then stopped Justin Abdelkader's tip attempt 8:18 into the third period to preserve Ottawa's one-goal lead.
"I think we realized they were going to come out in the third and put a lot of shots on net, and they did, but [Hammond] was comfortable," Ryan said.
Ottawa defenseman Erik Karlsson hit the goal post with 8:05 left in the second period.
An apparent goal by Senators forward Max McCormick with 5:15 remaining in the first period was waved off because of incidental contact with Howard.
The game was delayed with 8:50 left in the second period because of a broken section of glass.
It was the first of a home-and-home set that concludes Saturday at Canadian Tire Centre.
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