THE BREAKDOWN: Senators leave the city of ‘Motherly Love’ with 5-3 win

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SENATORS 5, FLYERS 3

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Call it the city of Motherly Love.

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The Ottawa Senators erased a two-goal deficit and scored three unanswered goals in the third period to kick off the two-game Mothers road trip with a 5-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center.

Vladimir Tarasenko completed the comeback by beating Philly goalie Samuel Ersson for the winner with 4:53 left in third. Claude Giroux, Tim Stutzle and Zack MacEwen also scored for the Senators who waved to their moms as they left the ice.

Stutzle scored his second into an empty net to put it away while Mads Sogaard secured the win with 23 stops.

“It feels really good to have the moms here and get the first win for them,” Stutzle told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson. “It was a great comeback win. We weren’t really playing well in the first, but that’s what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to stick with it and keep playing our game.”

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Giroux, the longest-serving captain in Flyers’ history, continued to make life difficult against his former team. He has three goals, five assists and eight points in five games versus the Flyers. His 14th of the year tied it up 3-3 at 3:19 of the third and made this anyone’s game.

“We played very well,” interim coach Jacques Martin said. “Even after getting behind we stuck with the game plan, we stuck with our structure and I think we had great commitment from our 20 guys.

“We got contributions from everybody. We did the right things, we didn’t give up one odd-man rush and we played the right way. It shows if you don’t cheat you have a chance of getting success.”

There was a scary moment in the third when Sogaard took a skate in the mask from Philly’s Garnett Hathaway during a collision in front. Sogaard was fine, but also incredibly fortunate.

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“It was luckily just a scare,” said Sogaard. “It was his toe-cap or something and some ice that hit my throat so I got a little scared to say the least. All good. No harm, I feel good. Even if something were to happen, you see how fast they are over to you and able to help.”

AFTER FURTHER REVIEW

Neither the Senators or Flyers had any complaints about the NHL’s situation room. Both were awarded goals after the whistled had gone, but it shouldn’t have been blown dead in either case.

After having a call go against them in the first, the Senators cut the Flyers lead to 3-2 after Stutzle was awarded his ninth at 11:45 of the second. The puck disappeared underneath Ersson and then reappeared in the net.

“The puck entered the (Flyers) net as a culmination of a continuous play where the result was unaffected by the whistle,” the situation room said.

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Earlier, the Flyers has opened the scoring with a strange one.

While the Senators thought Sogaard had frozen the puck, it bounced in the air and rocketed out the other side. You could hear the whistle go but the play kept going.

Egor Zamula fired it open from the left circle at 11:57 on the blocker side. The Senators tried to argue the play should have been blown dead but nobody saw the puck bounce to Zamula.

“Zamula’s shot entered the Ottawa net as a culmination of a continuous play where the result was unaffected by the whistle,” the league said.

“The first goal was weird to say the least,” Sogaard said.

THIS N’ THAT

Quite a hit by Ridly Greig on Rasmus Ristolainen in the third … A terrible giveaway by Ottawa D Artem Zub resulted in a 2-0 lead for the Flyer after 20 minutes. Zamula fired a shot from the point for his second of the game as he fired a shot by a screened Sogaard … The Senators had the Flyers hemmed in their zone for 90 seconds in the first and that resulted in a penalty to Philly’s Nick Seeler … Difficult to believe with all the offensive talent, the Senators power play is ranked No. 24 in the NHL. The club went 0-for-3 and is 7.7 per cent in January … The Senators finished the game with only five blueliners. Travis Hamonic left early after taking a hit from Travis Konecny and suffering an upper body injury.

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THE LAST WORDS

Martin opted to sit defenceman Erik Brannstrom Sunday in favour of Hamonic. Brannstrom was minus-1 against the Jets and was caught up ice when Winnipeg’s Mason Appleton broke the scoreless tie on a 3-on-1 at 14:35 of the second. The decision to scratch him won’t go over well, but he has to be better … With Pinto back, many were wondering what roster decisions Martin might make. Winger Dominik Kubalik, who has nine goals and 12 points in 41 games, didn’t suit up because of what the club called a minor hip injury. Centre Mark Kastelic, who played only six minutes and 29 seconds against the Jets, was scratched. He had only nine shifts Saturday. MacEwen got a measure of revenge against his former team. He picked up a loose puck near centre, skated in alone and beat Errson. That was MacEwen’s second of the season to cut the Flyers lead to 2-1 at 4:04 of the second.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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