Wayne Simmonds, Sean Couturier lift Flyers to 4-2 victory over Senators

OTTAWA - Wayne Simmonds scored the tiebreaking goal and Sean Couturier had an empty-netter and two assists as the Philadelphia Flyers downed the Ottawa Senators 4-2 on Tuesday.

Shayne Gostisbehere and Evgeny Medvedev also scored for the Flyers (10-10-5) while Steve Mason made 23 saves.

It was the third straight win for the Flyers and their fourth in five games.

Zach Smith and Mike Hoffman scored for the Senators (12-7-5) and Craig Anderson made 29 saves. The Senators have now dropped two straight after winning four in a row.

It was the second meeting in 10 days between the two clubs, both in Ottawa. The Senators won the first meeting 4-0 back on Nov. 21 despite being outshot 36-31.

Both teams traded first-period goals less than three minutes apart with the Flyers taking a 1-0 lead at 14:27 on the Gostisbehere goal, only to be followed up by Smith's at 17:17 to tie the game.

After taking a pass from Claude Giroux at the top of the left faceoff circle, Gostisbehere thought about shooting but instead took advantage of the space given to him and moved towards the bottom of the circle before firing a shot over the shoulder of Anderson and in.

Minutes later, Luke Schenn tried to wrap the puck around the boards behind his net and out of the zone but the puck was intercepted 10 feet inside the blue line by Cody Ceci, who fed Smith for a one-timer to tie the game.

The Flyers took a 3-2 lead after two periods on goals from Medvedev and Simmonds.

Medvedev scored just as a Flyers' power play came to an end at 3:14 of the second period.

After Hoffman tied the game for the Senators at 4:20, the teams played scoreless hockey for 12 minutes before Simmonds scored at 16:35, giving the Flyers their third one-goal lead of the game.

Notes: Forward Colin Greening and defenceman Patrick Wiercioch were scratches for the Senators. Scratches for the Flyers were forwards Vincent Lecavalier and Sam Gagner and defenceman Nick Schultz. … Senators forward Curtis Lazar hasn't scored in his past nine games. … The Senators and Flyers won't meet again until April.