The Ottawa Senators built a 3-0 lad in the first period and then had to hang on for a 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Thursday night.
The Sens got goals from five different skaters including Dion Phaneuf, Mark Borowiecki, Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Mark Stone and Tom Pyatt.
Craig Anderson made 36 saves to pick up the win as the Sens improved to 5-1-4.
Philadelphia’s Jakub Voracek and Travis Konecny scored in the second period to send the game to the third period with the Flyers trailing 4-2.
“We were just sloppy,” Voracek said. “There’s no way around it. A bad start. They score right away. Second goal was a blown coverage by me. I think we played better since the second period, but sometimes it’s not good enough.”
Ottawa managed a goal in the final frame to make it 5-2 before Ivan Provorov and Sean Couturier scored to tighten it late and cause some anxiety in the arena.
“We made it definitely interesting for our fans, made sure they don’t leave their seats too early,” Anderson said. “We just found a way. We don’t want to make this a habit. We want to make sure we continue to play hard all the way to the end and not give the other team a sniff. We’re learning. That’s the nice thing. It’s early in the year and we got learning to do and we’re doing that right now.”
[WATCH: All Flyers vs. Senators highlights]
Michal Neuvirth made 23 saves in absorbing the loss for the Flyers who dropped to 5-5-0.
“We made a couple of plays that were a little bit jittery under some pressure, not under heavy pressure. At times, that’s going to happen on the road with the group that we have back there. That being said, they made a couple mistakes, but they reeled it in and we got going and got skating together,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said of his team’s effort after the loss.
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