Senators fall behind in chase for Atlantic lead

PHILADELPHIA -- The Ottawa Senators fell further behind for first place in the Atlantic Division with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.
Ottawa (41-25-9) is four points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the division lead. The Canadiens defeated the Dallas Stars 4-1, but the Senators have one game in hand.
Philadelphia (36-26-8) is six points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with six games remaining. The Bruins defeated the Nashville Predators 4-1.

WATCH: All Senators vs. Flyers highlights
Jordan Weal scored for the Flyers in the shootout when he beat Craig Anderson with a wrist shot in the first round.
"I had a plan in mind," Weal said. "Maybe it didn't go exactly as planned but it found the back of the net and we got a big win."
Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan missed for the Senators in the shootout, and Tom Pyatt was stopped by Steve Mason.
Weal and Brayden Schenn scored, and Mason made 26 saves for Philadelphia.
Turris had a goal and an assist, Erik Karlsson scored, and Anderson made 33 saves for Ottawa.
Weal's goal at 14:01 of the third period tied the game 2-2 after Anderson turned over the puck.
"We limited his options and we took the walls away [so] he couldn't make a play," Weal said. "I tried to read off where his stickblade was angled and he tried to make a play up the middle. Was able to capitalize and intercept it and put it in the back of the net."

Anderson took the blame for the Senators getting one point.
"It should have never gotten to the shootout, that's the bottom line 100 percent," he said. "Horrible read by me and our guys deserved better than that."
Turris put the Senators ahead 2-1 at 12:35. Cody Ceci got to the rebound of a shot by Fredrik Claesson and drew two Flyers to him, but defensemen Brandon Manning and Michael Del Zotto collided and fell. Ceci dragged the puck around them and found Turris open between the circles.
Karlsson gave the Senators a 1-0 lead during a 5-on-3 power play. Turris beat Claude Giroux on a faceoff on the left side of the Flyers zone and kicked it back to Karlsson, whose shot went through a screen by Mark Stone and past Mason at 16:25 of the first period.
Schenn tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 18:34. He tipped Shayne Gostisbehere's one-timer past Anderson.

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Goal of the game

Weal started his shootout attempt carrying the puck to the right, cut to the middle and snapped a shot from the hash marks between Anderson's pads.

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Save of the game

Flyers forward Travis Konecny dug the puck out of the left corner in the Senators zone, skated toward the net and dragged it around Anderson's poke check. He shot from the right part of the crease but Anderson, on his stomach, stopped the shot with his pad with 3:39 left in the third period.

Highlight of the game

Anderson played a dump-in by Del Zotto and tried clearing it through the middle of the ice, but Weal intercepted it and scored into an empty net.

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Unsung performance of the game

Flyers center Valtteri Filppula won 8 of 11 faceoffs (72.7 percent). The Flyers won 27 of 54 (50.0 percent) in the game.

They said it

"We're not going to look at this and say, 'Oh our goalie made this gigantic mistake.' It happens. For all the saves he's made this year and for all the times he's made us win a game he gave us a point tonight too. … We are all behind him and we are going to keep getting behind him. He's played terrific for us and he's going to keep playing great." -- Senators coach Guy Boucher on Craig Anderson
"You can't [scoreboard watch]. There's too many teams that we're trying to catch and push ahead of. We worry about our games and hopefully we get some help, but that's out of our control. We got the two points again tonight and we're going to worry about Thursday's game and go from there." -- Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto

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Need to know

All three games in the season series between the Flyers and Senators ended 3-2 and went past regulation. The Senators won in a shootout in Philadelphia on Nov. 15, and the Flyers won in overtime in Ottawa on Dec. 1. … Senators forward Zack Smith played after missing the optional morning skate because of an illness. … Schenn's power-play goal was his 16th, third in the NHL behind Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov and Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin, who each has 17. Prior to Schenn's goal, the Flyers had been 0-for-16 on the power play in their previous seven games.

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What's next

Senators: At the Minnesota Wild on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; FS-WI, FS-N+, RDS2, TSN5, NHL.TV)
Flyers: Host the New York Islanders on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN1, SNO, CSN-PH, MSG+, NHL.TV)