Senators snap 3-game skid as Norris scores winner against Flyers
Ottawa centre nets power-play goal midway through 3rd period in 3-1 victory
For 40-some minutes there was a whole lot of nothing going on. How quickly things change.
A slapshot from Norris beat Martin Jones at 9:16 for a 2-1 lead while the Senators were on the power play.
"I guess I just like that area of the ice and for some reason pucks just seem to go in," Norris said, about the fact that most of his power-play goals come from the same spot.
"My job's easy, the guys just slide me the puck and I shoot it and hope it goes in, and lately it's been going in so it's a good feeling."
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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, many of those big and in the dying minutes with the Flyers pressing hard.
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.
"Forsberg made some really, really good saves. Sometimes you have to tip your cap. I think it came down to execution," Atkinson said, before turning his thoughts to his own netmnder.
Stutzle was a game-time decision after getting a little banged up in their previous game, but was excited to get in against the Flyers.
"Yesterday I didn't feel real good and today I skated and it was ok so I was happy to be able to play tonight," he said
"It's always good to get a goal in the first period. I think the whole team was really good and we were all together. And what are you going to say about [Forsberg]. He was unbelievable again and he helped us win the game in the last couple of minutes. It was a great team 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 tie it.
The Senators followed that up with losses to Chicago, Arizona and Columbus before Friday's win over the Flyers.
"You've got to find a way to win in this league and it's amazing what one win will do for you sometimes. We weren't great but we found a way to score," Senators coach DJ Smith said.
"You don't have great confidence when you're losing and there's not a lot of confidence to win games. We stuck with it and I thought we really checked in the third period and we had the better legs."
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.
