Stutzle's dramatic overtime winner capped a strong defensive effort, securing a 2-1 victory for the Senators as they enter the Olympic break.
The Ottawa Senators have entered the Olympic break on a winning note, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 2–1 in overtime on Thursday night in a fine defensive road performance. Tim Stutzle scored the OT winner for the Senators on a gorgeous deke past Flyers goalie Dan Vladar.
As if playing on the eve of a three-week holiday weren’t enough of a distraction, the Sens’ scheduled starting goalie, Linus Ullmark, fell ill during the day and couldn’t play. He's played two games, winning both, since returning from a month-long leave of absence. That called James Reimer into late action as the starter, with Hunter Shepard recalled from Belleville.
After a scoreless first period, Nick Cousins broke the deadlock midway through the second, cramming home a rebound off a Shane Pinto shot, and that looked for a long time like it might stand up as the game-winner.
Pinto showed some excellent patience at the side of the Flyers' net before ripping a wrist shot off Vladar's pads, and looked like it was probably designed to create the rebound.
Reimer’s save of the night came midway through the third. With the Sens still clinging to a 1–0 lead, Sean Couturier broke hard to the front of the net. Reimer made a strong pad save and may have gotten a piece of the rebound as well.
But the Flyers pressed late and the Sens got caught with tired defenders out there. Jamie Drysdale's wrist shot got through a sea of players and found its way under Reimer's blocker.
That assured the rival Flyers at least a point and forced overtime where it was defense be damned.
Both Brady Tkachuk and Stutzle got caught up ice, leading to a 2 on 1 for the Flyers. Stutzle hustled back to try and help, but Tkachuk was out of gas. Former 67 Travis Konecny missed the right post with his shot, and the puck rimmed all the way out to Tkachuk who was still slowly coming back at centre ice.
The captain left the puck for Stutzle, who blew past him, past Travis Sanheim and then past Vladar for the game winner.
The Senators outshot the Flyers on the night, 27-16, and they also got a little luck from the out of town scoreboard. The Buffalo Sabres, who hold one of the wild cards in the East, lost 5-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins. However, the Washington Capitals, the best of the conference's non-playoff teams, won 4-2 over Nashville to stay two points up on Ottawa.
With 25 games to play, the Senators are now seven points back of Buffalo (WC1) and six behind idle Boston (WC2).
Ottawa now enters the break with five wins in their last six games. Their next game won't be until Feb. 26 when they host the Detroit Red Wings.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News