Flyers ease past flailing Senators

Michael Raffl scored a goal and added an assist to lift the host Philadelphia Flyers past the Ottawa Senators 3-2 on Monday. It was the 400th career game in the National Hockey League for Raffl.

Oskar Lindblom and Scott Laughton each scored for the Flyers, who won their second in a row and pulled within three points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Philadelphia played without forward Jake Voracek, who received a two-game suspension from the league for a hit on the New York Islanders' Johnny Boychuk in a 5-2 win Saturday.

Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott made 20 saves. Chris Tierney and Filip Chlapik each scored a goal for the reeling Senators, who dropped their fourth straight game.

Goaltender Craig Anderson kept the Senators close for a while with 33 saves. Tierney gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 9:48 of the first period as he was able to deflect a bouncing puck past Elliott.

Laughton had two solid shots from close range in the final 20 seconds but wasn't able to score. The Flyers tied the game at 1 at 2:02 of the second when Lindblom recorded his 13th goal of the season.

Four minutes later, Raffl scored on the backhand for a 2-1 Philadelphia advantage. The Senators later were awarded a power play but didn't score. Tierney came close again but was stymied by Elliott.

Ottawa then killed off two Philadelphia power plays with Anderson making several difficult saves, most notably against Sean Couturier and Claude Giroux. The Flyers stayed aggressive and went ahead 3-1 with just 36.7 seconds remaining in the second when Laughton fired a wrist shot into the goal.

Ottawa came on strong to open the third with shots by Brady Tkachuk and Bobby Ryan. Elliott made the saves to preserve Philadelphia's two-goal lead. Laughton nearly scored again with 11:25 left as he skated in all alone yet had his backhand shot stopped by Anderson.

Chlapik got the Senators within 3-2 at 17:03 with his first goal. Ottawa pulled Anderson with slightly more than one minute remaining but couldn't equalize.

--Field Level Media

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)