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Wings emerge from break to battle Sens

Dec 27, 2014 - 4:21 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Detroit Red Wings halted a lengthy skid in their last game before the NHL's Christmas break, and they hope to add another win on Saturday when they visit the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Red Wings had lost six in a row (0-4-2) before salvaging the finale of a four-game homestand in Tuesday's matchup with Buffalo.

Detroit posted a 6-3 win over the Sabres, but it wasn't as easy as the final score suggests. Buffalo actually held several leads in the game before the Red Wings pumped in five unanswered goals to end the contest.

The six goals on Tuesday matched Detroit's total offensive output from the previous six games.

After cutting the deficit to 3-1 late in the second period, the Wings scored four times in the third. Detroit also finished 4-for-6 on the power play.

"We are happy our power play is working now," said Tomas Tatar, who posted two goals in the comeback victory. "Like I said, just shoot from everywhere, just try and eventually the puck will go in."

Henrik Zetterberg and Danny DeKeyser each finished with a goal and assist, Stephen Weiss and Johan Franzen also scored and Gustav Nyquist supplied three helpers for the Red Wings. Petr Mrazek stopped 13-of-16 shots in the win.

Jimmy Howard, who missed the last two games due to a lower-body injury, is expected to be back between the pipes tonight. Detroit's No. 1 netminder is 4-3-0 with a 3.37 goals against average in seven career games against the Senators.

Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall is questionable for tonight after suffering an upper-body injury against Buffalo. Stephen Weiss also sustained an upper- body injury on Tuesday, but is likely to play tonight.

Ottawa is coming off consecutive regulation losses and those setbacks dropped the Sens to 3-3-1 since Dave Cameron took over as head coach for the fired Paul MacLean.

The Sens went 0-2 on a brief road trip after losing 2-1 in Washington on Monday. Ottawa outshot the Capitals 39-23, but Braden Holtby made 38 stops to frustrate the Sens' offense.

Erik Condra had the lone goal for Ottawa, tying the game 1-1 with 4:04 left in the second period. However, Nicklas Backstrom scored the game-winner on the power play in the final minute of the second stanza.

"We gave ourselves an opportunity to win the game," Cameron said. "We ran into a guy who was seeing the puck really well tonight, that's going to happen from time to time."

Ottawa received 21 saves from Craig Anderson, who is expected to start tonight. Anderson is 4-6-0 with a 2.84 GAA in his career versus Detroit.

The Red Wings and Sens have split a pair of games so far this season, with each club winning on home ice. Detroit has claimed three of four and seven of the last 10 matchups in this series. Ottawa halted a four-game home losing streak against the Red Wings when it notched a 3-1 victory on Nov. 4.