PHILADELPHIA _ If the Flyers miss the playoffs by a point, they will look back at Tuesday's night's 3-2 shootout loss to Ottawa as Exhibit A.
A blunder by goalie Steve Mason allowed Ottawa to tie the score late in regulation, and the Senators won it in the fifth round of the shootout at the Wells Fargo Center.
Mason had stopped the first four shooters before Erik Karlsson deposited the winner.
The Flyers' Nick Cousins, Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, Travis Konecny, and Brayden Schenn failed to connect against goalie Craig Anderson in the shootout.
Anderson made 37 saves.
Kyle Turris scored on a wraparound with 1 minute, 59 seconds left to tie the score at 1-1. Mason, who had played a strong game up to that point, was slow to react.
A few minutes earlier, the Flyers killed their third penalty in as many tries in the game. That left Ottawa 1-for-29 on the power play in its last 10 games.
The Flyers outshot the Senators, 39-30.
Michael Raffl snapped a 1-1 tie by scoring on a rebound of a shot by Dale Weise with 6:42 remaining in the second period. The sequence started on a faceoff win by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, and Raffl got behind defenseman Karlsson and put the Flyers ahead by scoring on a backhander.
"I was able to beat my guy to the front of the net and get the rebound," Raffl said after scoring his second goal of the season.
Mark Stone, taking advantage of Mark Streit's turnover, had tied the game at 1-1 by scoring on a wrist shot from the slot with 12:51 left in the second.
That offset Cousins' first-period goal.
Cousins got the glory with a breakaway score, but defenseman Brandon Manning put the play in motion.
Cousins intercepted Derick Brassard's pass at the Flyers' defensive blue line and headed up ice. Manning was by his side and he screened off Brassard, enabling Cousins to go in on a breakaway and beat Craig Anderson for his second goal of the season, giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 14:46 to play in the opening period.
Cousins anticipated Brassard's pass.
"He's a pretty skilled player, so I just thought I'd sort of cheat and it worked out for me," Cousins said.
The Flyers finish the homestand with games Thursday against Winnipeg and Saturday afternoon against Tampa Bay, which lost star forward Steven Stamkos to a leg injury Tuesday in Detroit. The Flyers also play in Tampa next Wednesday.
