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Alfredsson powers Senators past Flyers

Dec 23, 2006 - 10:37 PM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- Even the underachieving Ottawa Senators got well against the Philadelphia Flyers.

Captain Daniel Alfredsson scored two goals and added an assist as the Senators overcame a pair of sloppy periods to post a 6-3 triumph over the Flyers.

The reigning Northeast Division champs, the Senators have been wildly inconsistent this season, yielding 110 goals while going just 6-9-0 at home.

Coming off a career-high 103-point campaign in 2005-06, Alfredsson has been a huge part of Ottawa's slow start this season, collecting just seven goals in his first 31 games.

But on Saturday, Alfredsson and the Senators ran into a club with even larger problems. The Flyers entered with eight consecutive losses and a league-worst 20 points this season.

After looking sluggish and skating to a 3-3 tie over the first two periods, the Senators took control in the final session thanks to Alfredsson, who netted his first goal of the game with 11:35 remaining to give Ottawa the lead for good.

"Bouncing back the way we did is very encouraging after we got the lead then we got outplayed the rest of the first." Alfredsson said. "Bouncing back in the third shows we have some character."

Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher's clearing attempt was intercepted by Dany Heatley, who snapped a quick shot at Antero Niittymaki. The Flyers' second-year goaltender made the save but could not gather the rebound and Alfredsson capitalized on the mistake, stuffing the loose puck past Niittymaki from near the right goalpost.

"We kept the puck along the boards," Alfredsson said. "Hatcher didn't have any time to do anything with it. He was kind of handcuffed and Heatley was on him right away. He got a shot right away and I was able to pounce on the rebound."

Peter Schaefer scored a power-play goal four minutes later to make it 5-3 and Alfredsson capped the third-period outburst with an empty-netter at 19:35.

"We came out in the second and third and we really worked hard," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "The biggest thing was the work level, getting the puck deep, and then working down against their defense."

"As bad as we've been playing and as inconsistent as we've been, the third periods for us have been pretty good," Heatley added. "At 3-3 we had a good feeling in the room and we were comfortable going on the ice."

The lead was more than enough for Senators goaltender Martin Gerber, who stopped 26 shots. Denis Hamel and blue-liners Chris Phillips and Joseph Corvo also tallied for Ottawa, which swept the home-and-home series from Philadelphia.

The Senators, who won for just the third time in their last nine games, battled back to the .500 mark at 18-18-1.

"To get back to .500 that was a game we really needed," Heatley said. "We get two days off now and this next month is make or break for us. We have about 45 games left and we have to win a lot of them."

Niittymaki made 36 saves while Kyle Calder had a goal and an assist for the Flyers, who went 0-for-5 on the power play.

"We had an opportunity to really put a big push out there," Philadelphia coach John Stevens said. "We could've come doing some really good things. We had good energy from the crowd, but the last 40 minutes was not good."