After sitting out 41 games for violating league gambling rules, Shane Pinto had one assist in his season debut.
For one afternoon, Philadelphia was the city of motherly love. With their moms cheering on loudly from one of the Wells Fargo Center suites, the Ottawa Senators rallied from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 on Sunday afternoon. Shane Pinto showed no rust, earning an assist in his return from his 41-game gambling-related suspension.
What Pinto added to the Senators was a solid two-way centre and the ability to roll four lines without skipping a beat. With Pinto's return, Ridly Greig slid over to the wing while Pinto skated with Mathieu Joseph and Vladimir Tarasenko, a duo that teamed up on the winning goal in the third period.
“You can't have too much [centre] depth in this league," Pinto said, ahead of Sunday’s game.
The Senators came out flying, with all four lines hemming the Flyers in their own zone for the first 10 minutes. Just as it did on Saturday against Winnipeg, it felt as though Martin's system was coming together, with heavy pressure when defending, limiting chances to the outside, and holding on to pucks.
However, the Senators would face some big-time adversity early.
The Flyers opened the scoring on the power play after a crazy sequence where a point-shot was deflected up into the air. Everyone on the ice, other than Flyers defenceman Egor Zamula, thought the play had been whistled dead.
In the mayhem, Zamula found the puck and shot it into a wide open net. The replay showed that the whistle had been blown before the goal was scored, but they allowed it anyway.
It was an unlucky goal after a great start, and the Flyers poured it on after that, doubling their lead a short time later. Zamula scored again on a nice wrist shot that went through a crowd to beat Mads Sogaard.
Despite their positive start, the Senators hit the first intermission down by two goals. That's pretty much how it's gone for them this season. But the Senators have begun to look less fragile over the last few games.
In the second period, they were able to withstand more Flyer pressure, and then finally capitalized. The Senators cut the lead to 2-1, thanks to the unlikeliest of sources. After the Flyers mishandled a pass back to the point, fourth liner Zack MacEwen went in on a breakaway and scored against his former team with a beautiful wrist shot.
Again, the Senators faced adversity and handled it nicely. The Flyers made it 3-1 on the power play when Joel Farabee’s wrister found its way through a maze of players in front of Sogaard.
But 55 seconds later, with the Flyers on a delayed penalty, the Sens crashed the net for a rebound. Amidst the mayhem, the play was whistled dead and no one really noticed the puck had ended up in the net. Upon review, the goal counted. Tim Stutzle got credit for it, and the Senators were made whole for the suspect call on the Flyers' first goal.
Pinto’s assist in his first game back was a fitting result as his line was all over the Flyers in that second period. Pinto later stole the puck from Tyson Foerster and walked in alone on Flyers' goalie Samuel Ersson, but his shot went wide. Pinto was everywhere.
In the third period, the Senators really showed their mettle, coming after the Flyers in waves. Just over three minutes in, former Flyer Claude Giroux tied the game at 3, burying the rebound after a shot from Tkachuk.
Pinto’s line then went to work again. Joseph intercepted a D to D pass at Ottawa's blue line. That set up a two-on-one, finished off perfectly by a Tarasenko one-timer. Pinto didn’t create the play, but he was down low in the right place defensively, allowing Joseph to be aggressive, creating the turnover and setting up the game winning-goal.
Stutzle would seal the game with a beautiful empty net goal. Jakob Chycrun lobbed the puck out of Ottawa's zone, Stutzle batted the bouncing puck past a Flyer defender, then skated past him to slide home the winner from a bad angle.
It was the Senators' first third period comeback win since beating the Minnesota Wild in Sweden. It was also the first time since Sweden that they've recorded a point in three straight games (2-1 OTL vs Winnipeg, 6-2 W vs Montreal).
The Senators improved to 17-24-1 on the season. They'll face the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night in Montreal at 7 pm.
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