KANATA, Ontario _ Each of the Flyers' three games this season against the Senators, the 14th-placed team in the 16-team Eastern Conference, have been the equivalent of root canal procedures.
On Saturday night, it took a shootout for the Flyers to get past the pesky Sens.
Sean Couturier scored the lone shootout goal, as the Flyers won, 5-4.
James van Riemsdyk had his second consecutive two-goal game. He has eight goals in the last 11 games, and his emergence has helped compensate for the loss of Oskar Lindblom and Scott Laughton.
Fortunately for the Flyers, they're done with the Senators for the season.
The power play struggled again. Kevin Hayes' goal was their only shot on goal in more than six minutes of play. They allowed Ottawa three dangerous shots shorthanded.
The Flyers played without Matt Niskanen, who was a late scratch because of the flu. Phil Myers was able to battle through the same illness and took a majority of his shifts on the top pairing alongside Ivan Provorov.
The Senators were in even worse shape, missing three of their top six defensemen.
