Senators rally to hand Flames third loss in row

OTTAWA --Filip Gustavsson won for the second time in two NHL starts, and the Ottawa Senators rallied to defeat the Calgary Flames 3-1 at Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday.

"Today, I felt more comfortable," Gustavsson said after making 28 saves starting for the second straight game. "It was like a normal game for me today. It felt like I did the hard part last game and the game before that. Now I'm just starting to play."
Gustavsson made 35 saves in his first start, a 2-1 win against Calgary on Monday to open the two-game set here, after making his NHL debut in relief March 17. Ottawa goalies Matt Murray (upper body), Marcus Hogberg (lower body) and Joey Daccord (lower body) are out.
"The kid's done a phenomenal job for us," Senators coach D.J. Smith said of the 22-year-old. "He's making the saves he's got to make. When you get goaltending, you have a chance to win every night in this league."

Josh Norris, Chris Tierney and Nikita Zaitsev scored in the third period for the Senators (12-20-3), who are 3-0-2 in their past five games, all at home.
Mark Giordano scored, and Jacob Markstrom made 28 saves for the Flames (15-16-3), who have lost three straight and are 1-4-0 in their past five. They are 4-4-0 under coach Darryl Sutter, who replaced Geoff Ward on March 4 but made his debut March 11.
"It's tough right now," said Giordano, the Calgary captain. "Both games feel similar, where we didn't have the ability to lock it down when we needed to in the final minutes. It's tough. It's really tough. This was a big trip for us and a couple tough losses. The bottom line is myself and the other leaders, we've got to make plays under pressure. That's the difference."
Giordano's point shot deflected off Senators forward Alex Formenton's glove and beat a screened Gustavsson to give the Flames a 1-0 lead at 13:37 of the second period.
"We had the game in our favor in the third and it got away from us," Calgary forward Dillon Dube said. "It's tough. It's not what you want, that's for sure."

Evgenii Dadonov won a puck battle with Calgary defenseman Chris Tanev behind the net and backhanded a pass to Norris, whose one-timer tied it 1-1 at 4:48 of the third period.
Tierney scored on the rebound of Thomas Chabot's shot to give the Senators a 2-1 lead at 12:01. Ottawa maintained possession in the offensive zone for 1:39 leading up to the goal.
"I've got to give our [defensemen] a lot of credit there," Tierney said. "I think they kept a ton of pucks in. … When you're playing like that in the offensive zone, it's a lot of fun."
Zaitsev scored into an empty net to make it 3-1 with 1:16 remaining.
NOTES:Gustavsson has a .973 save percentage (71 saves on 73 shots) since debuting in the third period of a 3-2 shootout loss to the Vancouver Canucks. … Formenton had one shot, two hits and one blocked shot in 10:00 of ice time in the forward's season debut.