Chychrun has 3 points in Senators win against Flyers

OTTAWA -- Jakob Chychrun had two goals and an assist, and Brady Tkachuk also scored twice for the Ottawa Senators in their home opener, a 5-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

Vladimir Tarasenko had two assists, his first points with the Senators since signing a one-year contract July 27.

“Everybody contributed,” said Tkachuk, who is Ottawa's captain. “There’s a lot of players that played awesome tonight and that’s kind of what we needed for us as a team. And of course, it helped with the atmosphere that the fans provided. We’re going to need that all year.”

Jake Sanderson had a goal and an assist, and Claude Giroux had two assists for the Senators (1-1-0). Anton Forsberg made 19 saves in his first start of the season.

“He’s been really good since training camp,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said of Forsberg. “From the first [preseason] game right on through, he’s just been solid. It was good for him to get that, the first one here. I think we’ve got two good goalies, and we’re going to play them both.”

Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist, Cam York scored and Carter Hart made 26 saves for the Flyers (1-1-0), who allowed three power-play goals.

"We don't even give ourselves a chance by taking that many penalties,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “A highly skilled team, eight blocked shots (by the Flyers); it's not a good recipe. And they had the puck most of the night."

Chychrun gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 2:36 of the first period when he took a centering feed from Zack MacEwen in the slot and beat Hart blocker side with a wrist shot.

“We defended a lot better,” Chychrun said, “and when we defend well it leads to offense, so that’s really kind of what we wanted, to get back on track here today is kind of limiting their chances. And we know it’s going to create chances for us off the rush.”

Chychrun made it 2-0 at 10:47 with his second goal of the period after one-timing a pass from Tarasenko at the top of the right face-off circle on the power play.

"We're going to watch a lot of video on it, probably, and talk a lot about it,” Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway said of the penalty kill. “I think there might have been some hesitations. I take blame for that, too.”

Konecny cut it to 2-1 at 16:51 when he scored during a 5-on-3 power play on a rebound of Tyson Foerster’s shot at the edge of the crease. The Senators went 5-for-6 on the penalty kill.

“I think the discipline, the stick penalties, and clearly in the first period we were a little bit excited there, but you can’t take those,” Smith said. “As the year goes on, you’re really going to wear your guys out and you’re giving the other team an opportunity.”

Sanderson responded to make it 3-1 at 16:12 of the second period when his point shot beat a screened Hart on the power play.

“I know last year it kind of took me, like, 20 games or so to score my first,” Sanderson said. “So, it’s always nice to get it done right away.”

York cut it to 3-2 with a snap shot 18 seconds later at 16:30 on the rush.

Tkachuk extended it to 4-2 at 19:54 with a one-timer from the left slot after Giroux stole the puck from Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim.

"I had played that 2-on-1, was able to intercept it, and then when I went to spin up ice,” Sanheim said. “Tkachuk kind of spun away, so I thought I had more time, and [Giroux] kind of snuck in behind me and made a good play. That's something I've got to bear down on in the last 10 seconds of the period. I've just got to clear the puck."

Tkachuk scored on his own rebound on a 4-on-3 power play at 1:32 of the third period for the 5-2 final.

"We're not going to panic, but our penalty kill, our power play, our offense, our defense, we were outplayed in all categories tonight,” Tortorella said. “We'll look at the tape and dust ourselves off and get ready for a game on Tuesday.”

NOTES: Chychrun is the third defenseman in Senators history to have at least three points in the home opener (Erik Karlsson, twice; Wade Redden, twice). … Giroux has at least one point in each of the seven games he's played against the Flyers (two goals, five assists in four games). He had 900 points in 1,000 games with Philadelphia. Giroux won 11 of 17 face-offs (64.7 percent). ... Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot was plus-2 and led all skaters with 25:19 of ice time. ... Philadelphia center Sean Couturier played 20:00 and won 11 of 22 face-offs (50 percent).