OTTAWA - There were no excuses, and few explanations, for the Detroit Red Wings' woeful first period Tuesday in their 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre.

They were well-rested and even gave key players the day off Monday. They should have been energized and they should have played with urgency from the opening faceoff, since they stressed it enough.

Instead, the Ottawa Senators dominated the first period, outshooting them 16-2, and would have blown it open if not for the outstanding play of goaltender Jimmy Howard, who kept it scoreless.

"I thought they played good and I thought we were as bad as we could be," Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said.

"Disappointing, obviously, our preparation, the job we did as coaches, the focus we had for the game, taking care of the puck. We obviously didn't get our message across, didn't do a very good job to have our team ready and we didn't play hard enough as a group and in the end ... it's real simple, you do good things, good things happen to you, and we got exactly what we deserved here tonight."

Despite the start, the Red Wings had a chance to win it in the third period. But Patrick Wiercioch snapped a 1-1 tie with 5:23 to play and Clarke MacArthur scored into an empty net with 58 seconds remaining.

The Red Wings' four-game winning streak in Ottawa was snapped. They fell to 6-3-3.

The Red Wings outshot the Senators 30-16 over the final 40 minutes to pull even in shots at 32-32.

"We had chances and yet I'm a big believer that if you do things right it goes your way over time," Babcock said. "We didn't do enough right and we didn't have enough good players. We didn't have enough guys competing hard enough, doing good enough things, and in the end good goaltending kept us around.

"I don't think you're ever disappointed in your group or yourself when you put everything out there but when you play like we did tonight you got to be disappointed.

Babcock blamed turnovers for the first two goals his team surrendered.

Erik Karlsson opened the scoring on the power play at 14:37 of the second. Henrik Zetterberg tied it at 2:34 of the third.

"They really dictated the play, they skated in the first period and we didn't," Howard said. "It's tough to get the puck in the offensive zone when they're catching you from behind all the time. We did not do a good job of getting the puck out at our blue line and getting it in at theirs, getting in on the forecheck."

Despite his brilliance, Howard blamed himself for the winning goal.

"I didn't get a good look at it; I had two guys skate in front of me right when the shot was being taken so my eyes were a little bit taken away," Howard said. "But I think at that point in the game it's a save I got to come up with for the guys."

Zetterberg said Howard was the only reason his team had a chance in the third period.

"We only played two periods, so we gave it away for the first period," Zetterberg said. "I think the only player who played for our team was Howie, and really kept us in the game. We can't show up in the first like we did today and expect that we'll win the games."

Niklas Kronwall rattled a shot off the post with minutes remaining as Detroit had a late power-play chance to tie it.

"If you don't skate it's tough to win battles," Kronwall said. "We didn't even play in the first."

It won't get any easier Wednesday as the Red Wings visit the New York Rangers, having to play on back-to-back nights against the rested defending Eastern Conference champions who shut them out twice at home last season behind Henrik Lundqvist.

"We obviously got to sort out a few things," Babcock said. "We'll do that prior to our game tomorrow. We just got to get our whole group to play harder."

Call to paramedics a false alarm

Paramedics reportedly came into the Red Wings dressing room after the game, but apparently nobody was in any danger.

In a text message, general manager Ken Holland said, "False alarm. All good and heading to airport."