Senators recover for OT win against Flyers, keep pace in wild card race

OTTAWA -- Alex DeBrincat scored 1:36 into overtime, and the Ottawa Senators recovered for a 5-4 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

DeBrincat capitalized after Philadelphia goalie Felix Sandstrom turned the puck over to him behind the net.
"I think Claude Giroux] was forechecking pretty hard and made him put it there," DeBrincat said. "A lot of credit to [Giroux]. He got it in deep, forechecked the goalie pretty hard and handcuffed him. He should probably be credited with that goal."
[Tim Stutzle
had a goal and an assist, and Cam Talbot made seven saves in his first start since March 4 after missing 12 games with a mid-body injury for the Senators (37-33-5), who have won two in a row for the first time since a five-game streak from Feb. 25-March 4.
Ottawa remained five points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. Pittsburgh won 2-0 against the Nashville Predators on Thursday.
"The jobs not finished and we've got seven games left," Senators forward Shane Pinto said. "We've just got to keep winning games. That's all that matters."

Tony DeAngelo and Cam York each scored and had an assist, and Sandstrom made 41 saves for the Flyers (29-32-13), who had won four straight and are 5-0-2 in their past seven games.
Associate coach Brad Shaw ran Philadelphia's bench after coach John Tortorella opted to watch from the press box.
"They outplayed us all game," DeAngelo said. "The fact that we were able to get a point shows good resiliency just to stay in it and not to let it get out of hand after it got to 4-1."
Giroux gave Ottawa a 4-1 lead at 2:28 of the third period when he took a stretch pass from Stutzle and scored on a breakaway.

York then cut it to 4-2 at 5:22 for his first goal in 43 games (Dec. 13) before a point shot by Rasmus Ristolainen redirected in off Noah Cates on a power play to make it 4-3 at 9:54.
Owen Tippett tied it 4-4 at 17:21 when he tapped in a cross-crease pass from Travis Sanheim.
"You look up at the shot clock and it's kind of demoralizing, but we stayed with it," Shaw said. "[Tortorella] says it a lot, 'It's a find-a-way-to-win league' and it's not always a Rembrandt. Sometimes they're ugly and your goalie stands on his head, like he did tonight for us. We just came up a little short."
Austin Watson gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 10:58 of the first period when he scored after intercepting a clearing attempt by Ivan Provorov.
DeAngelo tied it 1-1 at 2:51 of the second period with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle on a power play for his first goal in 14 games.
Stutzle responded to make it 2-1 at 7:43 when he knocked in a loose puck in the crease, and Pinto pushed it to 3-1 at 16:50 on a power play, knocking a shot attempt by Mathieu Joseph out of midair at the left post.
"We worked extremely hard, created a lot I thought, and we laid off a little bit in the third," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "And when they got chances, they went in the net."

Philadelphia had 11 shots on goal, the fewest in a regular-season game in team history. It was outshot 17-2 in the first and 17-6 in the second.
"[Sandstrom] played great. He did nothing wrong," DeAngelo said. "Stopped breakaway, breakaway, this chance, that chance. He was really good, so it [stinks] that he has to get the loss."
Ottawa defenseman Travis Hamonic and forward Derick Brassard each left the game with a lower-body injury. Hamonic was injured on a hit by Nick Seeler at 10:55 of the first period. Brassard was injured just prior to the goal by Pinto when he got tangled up with Sandstrom.
Smith said they will be reevaluated Friday, but "it doesn't look like they'll be able to return anytime soon."
"It's tough to see," DeBrincat said. "Two important guys to our team go down. It's not an easy thing to move past, but we've got to do it anyway."
NOTES: Pinto has 20 goals this season, giving the Senators six 20-goal scorers for the first time since 2005-06. … Talbot has won his past five starts at home. … Ottawa forward Brady Tkachuk (four goals, two assists) and Stutzle (two goals, four assists) each extended his point streak to four games. ... The Senators tied their record for the fewest shots allowed in a regular-season or playoff game (four times). ... Philadelphia had 11 shots on goal in a 2-0 win against the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of the 2016 Eastern Conference First Round. ... Ottawa defenseman Tyler Kleven had an assist in his NHL debut after signing a three-year entry-level contract March 23.