By Canadian Press

Norris scores the winner, Senators beat Flyers 3-1

Mar 18, 2022 | 8:11 PM

OTTAWA — Josh Norris scored the winning goal midway through the third period Friday as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 and snapped a three-game losing streak.

A slapshot from Norris beat Martin Jones at 9:16 for a 2-1 lead while the Senators were on the power play.

Tim Stutzle scored in the first period to give the Senators (22-34-5) a 1-0 lead and Anton Forsberg made 27 saves for the win.

Alex Formento iced the win when he scored shorthanded into an empty net from behind his own goal line with 2:38 to play.

The lone Flyers’ goal came off the stick of Cam Atkinson. Jones made 32 saves for the Flyers (19-31-11) in a solid but losing effort.

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It wasn’t the homestand the Senators were hoping for as not much went right before Friday. They gave up a 3-0 lead to the Seattle Kraken in their first game back home. They ended up winning that game in overtime after the Kraken scored three times in the third period to ties it.

The Senators followed that up with losses to Chicago, Arizona and Columbus before Friday’s win over the Flyers.

Through two periods of the game things were pretty tight. The Senators, with a late surge, held a 24-18 shot advantage, but in the only stat that matters, the score after 40 minutes was 1-1.

Stutzle opened the scoring at 10:45 of the first period with a rocket of a shot from the faceoff dot that went over the shoulder of Jones, hit the middle bar inside the net and shot out just as quickly as it had gone in.

A few minutes later the Senators nearly doubled their lead to 2-0, but Alex Formenton was unable to beat Jones in tight on a pass from Connor Brown. The Senators were shorthanded at the time.

In the second Atkinson tied the game 1-1 when he tipped a point shot over the shoulder of Forsberg at 6:10. Atkinson somehow got the blade of his stick on the shot from Justin Braun for the redirect that left Forsberg with no chance on the play.

Notes: One night after playing in his 1,000th career game, Flyers captain Claude Giroux stayed home as the rest of the team made their way to Ottawa for Friday’s game. The 34-year old is likely to be traded before the trade deadline…Despite a four-year, $10-million contract offer, Nick Paul was held out of Friday’s game with the trade deadline looming…The Senators are in Montreal to play the Canadiens Saturday while the Flyers host the New York Islanders Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2022.

Darren Desaulniers, The Canadian Press