Dillon Dube scored twice while Tyler Toffoli had a goal and an assist, but Tim Stützle scored the OT winner as the Sens erased a two-goal deficit and knocked off the Flames 4-3 on Monday night at Canadian Tire Centre.
"We had chances throughout the entire game to essentially put them away and we didn't," Toffoli said. "We let them hang around and they're a team with a lot of skill and can do what they did."
For Dube, he now has a career-high 33 points (15G, 18A), tripping the mark he set last year in 25 fewer games. He was coming off a career-high four-point night in Buffalo and is now - quite clearly - becoming a legitimate, top-line winger right before our eyes.
At one point, the shots were 21-5. The Flames - like they did in Buffalo - completely took over the game after an evenly played first. And when Dube scored his second of the night early in the third period to make it a two-goal game, it felt like there was no shot of an Ottawa comeback.
Until there was.
First, Batherson banged home a loose puck in the blue paint after a Stützle blast was knocked down by Markstrom, but sat free at his left toe. Then, DeBrincat ripped one under the bar from a seemingly impossible angle to make it a 3-3 game.
Both goals came with the goalie pulled.
In overtime, Stützle capped off a four-point night with a strike off the rush to win it for the homeside.
With the overtime loss, the Flames' record falls to 25-18-11.
"I thought we played a hell of a game," said Head Coach Darryl Sutter, whose team out-shot the Sens 37-25 and had the better of the scoring chances throughout. "We got down to four D the last three or four minutes, I thought we ran out of gas. I thought we played really well."
The Flames will now make the long trek home before beginning a three-game homestand on Thursday against the Red Wings.
The Senators drew first blood on their second shot of the game, 6:09 into the first. Brady Tkachuk blew the zone early, did a loop to buy some time in the neutral zone, and took a stretch pass from Stützle before breaking in alone. Ottawa native MacKenzie Weegar tried to flag down the Sens captain, but Tkachuk had all the time in the world to maneuver his way in, check-up between the hash marks and fire a quick shot over the glove.
Former Flame Travis Hamonic picked up the other helper.
The Flames, though, were the better team in the period and kept the pedal down before earning a powerplay chance after killing off a Blake Coleman minor.
With the so-called 'second unit' - quarterbacked by Noah Hanifin - leading the charge on most of it, the visitors moved the puck as well as they have all year with the advantage. Every player on the ice got a touch before the puck was moved back up to the point for a Hanifin one-timer that was tipped home by Dube.
No. 29 stays hot after spinning up a career-high four-point game against Buffalo, and with his first-period tally, tied his career high with his 32nd point of the season (in 25 fewer games). It was a mark didn't stand for long.
Dube had a golden opportunity earlier in the frame, as well, when he took off on a 2-on-1 with Elias Lindholm, but Ottawa netminder Mads Sogaard - who was making only his fourth-career start - fought off the winger's cheeky, short-side attempt.
Tempers flared late in the period when Coleman and Andrew Mangiapane broke in and scored off the rush, but the play was whistled down a split-second before on the offside, drawing the ire of the homeside.
Off-setting penalties to Coleman and Stützle ensued, with the two entangled in a wrestling match.
Shots on goal favoured the Flames 11-5 after one.
The Flames took a 2-1 lead at 5:55, mere seconds after their fourth powerplay of the game had expired. But considering how they were snapping it around and keeping the Senators hemmed in their own end for the entire two minutes, it may as well have been a PPG.
And it was their top sniper making it count.
Earlier in the day, Dube held court in the Flames locker-room and spoke of the deception that Toffoli brings from the prime shooting areas. THIS was Exhibit A. Toffoli took a feed from Weegar, walked off the right circle, froze the defender with a filthy double-clutch, before quickly loading up again and firing a bullet far side.
The goal was Toffoli's 22nd of the year and fifth in his last five games.
