OTTAWA - Chris Neil scored two goals and the Ottawa Senators beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 on Wednesday night in a pre-season game.
Neil scored a power-play goal on Jean-Sebastien Aubin late in the first to tie it at 1. Neil added Ottawa's third goal when he scored on Maxime Ouellette 8:07 into the third, and fought with Flyers forward Arron Asham with 4:55 remaining.
Jesse Winchester also scored for the Senators, who improved to 2-1 in three exhibition games after splitting a pair with the New York Rangers.
"They didn't have their full lineup and we had a good lineup dressed, but we also came ready to play tonight and that's what we have to do game in and game out," Neil said. "We've got to be raring to go and show up ready to go to work."
Darroll Powe scored the Flyers' goal when he beat Martin Gerber 7:03 into the first period after jumping on Ottawa defenceman Brendan Bell's turnover in his own zone.
It was Philadelphia's only shot of the opening period as they were outshot 15-1, and 34-11 overall.
"Usually the home team puts out a stronger lineup, I guess tonight was no different," said Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson, who made his pre-season debut. "We took advantage of that, I thought, but we played smart, though. We didn't give them many opportunities and our penalty killing was really good, so a solid game."
Gerber went the distance and made 10 saves.
Aubin, who played 19 games with Los Angeles last season, stopped 21 shots over the first two periods.
"He kind of got barraged there and I thought he did a good job, he stood tall," Flyers coach John Stevens said.
Ouellet stopped 10 shots in the third.
Philadelphia left wing Simon Gagne accompanied the team, but did not dress for the game. Gagne was sidelined three times last season by concussions and has yet to play since he suffered his most recent concussion in a game in Pittsburgh on Feb. 10.
"He's been off so long, we figure we'll give him some time to practice and get his timing back and get his skating legs back, so hopefully we'll get him in by the weekend," Stevens said.
Gagne, who agrees with the team's careful approach, hopes to play Saturday's exhibition game against Carolina.
"I feel very good and I did pretty much everything I had to do to be healthy and be in good shape," Gagne said.
