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Senators complete season sweep of Flyers

Mar 18, 2007 - 5:40 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- It took exactly one month for Mike Comrie to make a significant offensive contribution for the Ottawa Senators.

Comrie snapped a second-period tie and added an assist and Peter Schaefer netted his 12th goal of the season to lead the Senators to a 3-2 triumph over the league-worst Philadelphia Flyers.

Ottawa (42-23-7) moved one point ahead of Pittsburgh (40-21-10) into fourth place in the Eastern Conference by completing its first-ever season series sweep of Philadelphia.

"We didn't want to make it as close as we did tonight," Schaefer said. "We worked hard, played a good game and we were fortunate enough to get two points."

Acquired from Phoenix on January 3, Comrie netted his first goal in 13 games with 6:24 left in the second period by beating netminder Martin Biron for his 16th goal.

"It was a big one for us," Comrie said. "We finally held on to one there. We kept things simple for the most part. It was really nice to contribute. It's been a few sleepless nights in Ottawa."

Schaefer gave Ottawa a 3-1 lead midway through the third session with his first goal in 12 outings, sliding the puck from the doorstep inside the left goalpost.

"(Mike) Fisher drove to the middle and (Daniel Alfredsson) passed it on to Mike's stick," Schaefer said. "Fisher basically gave me an empty-net pass, so that was a little bit different as I'm not used to getting passes from Fisher."

"I saw Schaefer going to the net and he just shot it hard at the net," Fisher said. "He made a nice play to get it by Biron and it turned out to be a big goal."

Defenseman Tom Preissing opened the scoring in the first period and goaltender Martin Gerber made 28 saves for Ottawa, which is 12-1-4 in its last 17 contests.

"It wasn't pretty and it probably wasn't the most entertaining game for the fans, but in the end, we won the game," Preissing said.

"It was a heartfelt game for both sides and we really put everything out there," Gerber said. "It's a good position to be in. We worked hard to get here."

Mike Richards and defenseman Derian Hatcher scored and Biron stopped 30 shots for the Flyers, who have dropped seven of their last eight road games.

"This has been a real test for us the last 10 games of the season," Biron said. "We have to start showing that we have the desire to keep it going into next season. That (is) really where everyone in here needs to get their heads into.

"There's a lot of guys in this locker room that can make this franchise successful and we really want to turn it around starting next year."