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PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Peter Schaefer broke a deadlock with 12 1/2 minutes left, helping the Ottawa Senators to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in a matchup of two of the NHL's best teams. Schaefer beat Roman Cechmanek with a wrist shot from the low slot for his third goal of the season. Defenseman Shane Hnidy and Martin Havlat combined for the set up in the middle. "It was a good play on our winning goal. It was a good breakout by Hnidy finding Havlat," Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. Michal Handzus had tied it at 2:54 for the Flyers by finishing an attack from defenseman Kim Johnsson, who pushed the puck to him on the left side after gaining the Ottawa zone. Handzus put a shot past Patrick Lalime's short side. "We battled back to even the score," Philadelphia captain Keith Primeau said. "We tried to settle in from that point on and tried to get some scoring chances and not give up much. That's why they are so good. They got it up the ice, scored and we fell behind again." "Every time we get the first goal we play well," said Lalime, who made 27 saves. "There weren't a lot of chances for either side. This was a big game." The win was the Senators' seventh in eight games and moved them two points ahead of Boston atop the Eastern Conference. They are 15-2-3 in the last 20 games. "What I like about our game is that once they tied it I thought we came back," said Martin, whose team was coming off a 9-3 rout of San Jose. "Patrick played very well. That was key. I also thought our special teams did a good job. We got a goal on the power play and it made the difference in the game, and we shut them down with our penalty-killing." The Senators opened the scoring on the power play with 1:36 to go in the first period when Mike Fisher got his sixth goal on a deflection. "We didn't get too many chances, but the ones we got, we buried," Fisher said. "It seems like we are finding the little chances to win lately. This happens when you are hot." Daniel Alfredsson worked a give-and-go with Todd White, who skated into the slot. Stationed in front, Fisher tipped the shot between Cechmanek's glove and pad. "We have been playing a lot of close games lately," Alfredsson said. "I don't know if we came out slowly or they come out hard. They had a simple game plan. They got the puck deep and forechecked hard. I think it looked like they outplayed us in the first because they were in our end. I think we did a good job of collapsing in our end limiting their chances." Defenseman Wade Redden added an empty-net goal with 31 seconds left. Philadelphia had a five-game unbeaten streak stopped in the first half of a home-and-home series. "It was a very intense, passionate and physical hockey game," Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock said. "It had a playoff feel for the players. I know it was frustrating for us not to collect points in this game, but we had a lot of people play very, very well. Both teams were very intent on defending with passion, and you had to work like hell for scoring chances." |
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