DETROIT — The Red Wings' slide continues, be it against playoff teams or rebuilding ones.
The Wings lost, 5-2, Friday to the Ottawa Senators, a team similar to the Wings in rebuilding and playing out the string.
But it was the Senators who looked more impressive in this game.
Josh Norris, on the power play, and Mathieu Joseph scored 1 minute, 11 seconds apart early in the third period, breaking a 1-1 tie.
Joseph added another goal later in the period, before Lucas Raymond scored his second goal of the game, cutting Ottawa's lead to 4-2.
Joseph completed his third-period hat trick (and 11th goal) with an empty-net goal, making it 5-2.
At that point, the "Fire Blashill" chant for Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill became noticeable from the sparse crowd that remained at Little Caesars Arena.
Ottawa goalie Mads Sogaard made his NHL debut and stopped 27 shots to earn the victory.
Norris scored his 27th goal to break the tie, after the Wings squandered a two-man advantage then a power play when Raymond was penalized for tripping.
Norris got the puck near the left dot, with Ottawa on its power play, and whistled a nice set up by Erik Brannstrom past goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.
"He's a great goal scorer," Blashill of Norris after Friday's morning skate. "He's been a great goal scorer everywhere he's gone and he's just continued into the NHL.
"Speaking to our guys (Friday morning), we talked about how we have to do a good job of not giving him much space and make sure we have stick on puck, not allowing him to get his shot off. When he shoots it, it has a good percentage of going in. He's that kind of goal scorer."
Joseph extended the lead to 3-1 at 3:36. Tyler Ennis shoveled a pass into the slot in front of Nedeljkovic, and Joseph eluded Gustav Lindstrom to snap a quick shot past Nedeljkovic.
Joseph then scored at 13:19, sniping a shot from just above the hashmarks past Nedeljkovic.
Raymond cut Ottawa's lead to 4-2 at 13:59, redirecting a feed in the slot from Filip Hronek.
The Wings (26-33-9) have lost nine of their last 11 games (2-6-3), while Ottawa (24-37-6) won its second in the last six games.
Raymond opened the Wings' scoring with his 21st goal, tying the game in the second period.
Austin Watson (Ann Arbor) added a short-handed goal for the Senators.
This was the first game between the Atlantic Division rivals this season, as the season Friday entered its final month.
"It's always a little bit different (to face a team this late in the season), you'd love to kind of even it out over three times over the course of a season and kind of see teams have different rosters," said Blashill after the morning skate. "(Ottawa) has gotten healthier as the season has gone along. (The Senators) work hard and compete, they'll do those two things for sure."
For a while, the turning point of this game likely could have been a video challenge the Wings won in the first period.
Ottawa was leading 1-0 and appeared to get another goal, by Alex Formenton. But Blashill challenged for goalie interference and was proven correct.
Formenton crosschecked Moritz Seider out of the way near the crease — sent Seider sprawling into Nedeljkovic — and the Wings won the challenge for goalie interference.
Watson opened the game's scoring for Ottawa.
With the Wings on the power play, Joseph carried the puck into the zone and found Watson in the slot. Watson snapped a shot that cleanly beat Nedeljkovic for Watson's fourth goal, at 5:07.
But Nedeljkovic kept it a one-goal game despite Ottawa out-shooting the Wings 13-6 in the opening 20 minutes, and the Wings tied it quickly in the second period.
Raymond and Jake Walman skated on a two-on-one rush, and Walman lined a shot that Sogaard got a piece off, but let the puck squirm free into the crease. Raymond stormed in and poked the loose puck for his 21st goal, at 2:18.
With the goal, Raymond became just the fourth Wings' player to reach the 50-point mark in a single season before the age of 21, joining Marcel Dionne, Mark Osborne and Steve Yzerman.
