Ottawa Senators leave the City of Brotherly Love with win

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SENATORS 5, FLYERS 2

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The Ottawa Senators suddenly look unstoppable.

The Senators extended their winning streak to four games by digging deep to pick up an important two points in a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Arena.

Dylan Cozens, Michael Amadio, Tyler Kleven, Shane Pinto and captain Brady Tkachuk did the scoring as the Senators moved their record to 5-0-1 in their past six games and tightened their grip on the first wild-card spot in the East.

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Cozens’ second goal since being traded to the Senators from the Buffalo Sabres on Friday put this one away. It was the club’s first shot on Philly goalie Ivan Fedotov at 10:59 of the third.

“I liked it. Whenever you’re playing back-to-back games your energy level is a little lower and it was an emotional win last night,” coach Travis Green told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson. “I thought our start was important and getting the goal early helped.

“I thought we just stayed with the game.”

Backup Anton Forsberg had to come up big, especially in the third period, as the Flyers tried to get back into this one. The Senators were an absolute adventure defensively.

The Senators truly looked like they were on the back end of a back-to-back and there were times they were completely dominated by the Flyers. Pinto scored into an empty net — only Ottawa’s second shot of the third period.

BUSY STRETCH

Starting with an emotional 2-1 victory over Detroit at home on Monday, the Senators are a stretch of seven games in 13 days, which includes four on the road.

Trying to make the playoffs for the first time in eight years, these next two weeks will go a long way in determining whether they’ll do it.

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It feels like the Senators will get in because there are times they have just looked unstoppable, but this was not one of the club’s better efforts. There were times they looked fatigued.

Through 40 minutes, the Senators were up 3-2 thanks to Amadio’s eighth of the season. He beat Fedotov through the five-hole with 4:59 left in the second. It was Amadio’s third goal in six games.

The Flyers refused to back down in a second period that featured four goals between the two clubs. With Ottawa defencemen Jake Sanderson and Artem Zub caught out for a lengthy stretch, the Flyers’ Rodrigo Abols tied it 2-2 at 8:45 of the second.

Only 1:09 after Philly’s Jamie Drysdale tied it 1-1 at 3:03 of the second, Kleven restored the lead to 2-1. He did a great job keeping the puck in the Flyers zone at the blueline, then beat Fedotov from the point.

“Back-to-back you’ve just got to put your head down and grind through it,” said Kleven. “I thought we played a good 60 minutes tonight. We had contributions from everyone and it’s a big two points for us.”

That was only his second of the season.

FORSBERG RETURNS

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This was Forsberg’s first start since Feb. 6 against Tampa Bay as he sought his first win since Feb. 3.

Forsberg did play 28 minutes against the Montreal Canadiens on Feb. 22 at home, but has been watching from the bench while Linus Ullmark made eight straight starts, including Monday’s win over the Red Wings.

Ullmark, who had a standout effort with 48 stops in Ottawa against Detroit, was given the night off completely. Leevi Merilainen was recalled from the club’s AHL affiliate to dress as the backup.

Forsberg came in with a 3-0-1 lifetime record against Philly and a .926 save percentage. For a guy who hasn’t played much, he made some key saves when the Senators needed them.

He made two huge stops during a flurry midway through the second and had some help in the third when Sens’ Matthew Highmore knocked a puck away with his stick in mid-air on Flyers centre Sean Couturier.

“I skated right up to him in the break afterward. This is a guy who works extremely hard and doesn’t do anything that he’s not supposed to do,” Forsberg said. “He’ll work his (guts) off to get back in time and tonight you saw what he did there. That’s probably why we won this game.”

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PLAYOFF PAYOFF

Tkachuk opened the scoring on the first shot of the game. He took a feed from former Flyer Claude Giroux and beat Fedotov, who couldn’t get across the net in time to make the stop only 24 seconds into the first.

That moved Tkachuk into fourth all-time in franchise history in goals with 189 in his career. It was his 400th career point in his 502nd career game.

But Tkachuk, who has scored seven goals in the club’s past seven games, has his eye on only one prize: Playoff hockey.

“This stretch is going to make us who we are,” Tkachuk told TSN’s Gord Miller after the first period. “This is a dream of mine to be in the race, compete and bring what we want back to Ottawa. That’s not going to change.”

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