Senators escape Philly with shootout win

The Ottawa Senators picked up a critical two points in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon, winning 4-3 in a shootout after squandering a three-goal lead.The seventh-place Senators are two points up on the Washington Capitals, who beat the Montreal Canadiens Saturday and four points up on Buffalo, which lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ottawa plays Sunday as well, at which point all three clubs will have played 79 games.Currently, the Senators hold the standings tiebreaker on the Sabres but not the Capitals.Ottawas opponents on Sunday are the New York Islanders.The Senators were up 3-0 by the 14:27 mark of the first in Philadelphia.Our team does a good job of being resilient and showing a little character and coming back, Senators coach Paul MacLean said.Captain Daniel Alfredsson set up Jason Spezza for a goal six minutes in and then scored himself five minutes later. Chris Neil added a goal, the second point in 12 games as a Senator for Rob Klinkhammer.The Flyers had the game tied by late in the second. Wayne Simmonds scored on a Brayden Schenn shot that went off his face, with Sean Couturier and Braydon Coburn also finding the mark.Simmonds was bloodied but came back to the game after getting repairs, while the Couturier goal needed several minutes of video review before it was called.I saw it coming, but theres not much I could really do, Simmonds said. Just trying to take the shot and it got deflected off.Both clubs had great chances to win the game late. Spezza ran out of room on the doorstep late in the third period, with Bobrovsky making a pad save, while in overtime Briere hit the post for the Flyers and a Simmonds re-direction of a shot nearly beat Anderson.The Senators blew a 3-0 lead before Michalek and Spezza bailed them out in the shootout. Matt Read scored in the shootout for the Flyers.Craig Anderson finished with 36 saves. Anderson stopped all 15 shots in the first, including a terrific save on Claude Girouxs short-handed breakaway, only to allow three goals on 14 shots in the second.Alfredsson helped open the scoring when he reversed the puck behind the net and dumped it to Spezza, who was waiting by the post and scored his 32nd.We do some crazy stuff sometimes to put ourselves in tough positions, Alfredsson said. But more often than not weve been able to come up with some kind of solution and big play at the right time. We never stop believing. Its a great group.