Flyers fall to Senators as Claude Giroux and Zack MacEwen score for Ottawa

This was a game the Flyers had to win.

Facing a team at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, these are the contests a group looking to make the postseason should take the two points from. Instead, it was a couple of former Flyers putting in the work and helping the Ottawa Senators skate away with a 5-3 win Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center. Vladimir Tarasenko notched the game-winner with 4 minutes, 53 seconds left on a two-on-one after some sustained pressure by the Flyers.

The game started a bit lopsided with the Senators coming out strong and the Flyers needing to weather the storm. But they did and it was the Flyers — actually, Egor Zamula — who were up, 2-0, after one period.

With Owen Tippett out, Cam York was added to the first power-play unit and it immediately paid dividends. York went to the net on a shot by Joel Farabee and, as he was knocked down, Senators goalie Mads Søgaard thought he had the puck among the commotion — he did not. Instead, the rebound went out to Zamula at the half-wall and the defenseman was able to easily score into the open net.

Zamula made it 2-0 with a shot from the top of the circles after the Flyers retrieved a dump-in. The blueliner entered the game with three goals this season.

But the Hockey Gods love to give and take, and Zamula was burned on the Senators’ first goal in the second period. He couldn’t handle a pass from Ryan Poehling at the offensive zone blue line, allowing former Flyers forward Zack MacEwen to break out and score past Sam Ersson.

Farabee then continued his hot streak as he netted a power-play goal off a pass from Zamula to make it 3-1. Farabee, who had three points on Sunday, now has five goals and four assists during a six-game point streak.

The two-goal lead lasted only 55 seconds, however, as the Senators had their own commotion in front of Ersson. The Flyers netminder made two solid saves, including a toe save on Tim Stützle in front. But the Senators kept banging away and with Ersson down on the ice, it slipped past him. Like Zamula’s goal, this one was reviewed and determined that the puck was scored “as a culmination of a continuous play where the result was unaffected by the whistle,” per NHL video review. Stützle was credited with the goal and added an empty-netter in the last 90 seconds.

» READ MORE: Takeaways from the Flyers’ 7-4 loss to the Avalanche: Costly turnovers, Owen Tippett’s injury, and more

And it was old friend Claude Giroux who tied things up. The former Flyers captain was able to lose his check from Sean Couturier and snag a loose puck off a Brady Tkachuk shot attempt. A guy who scored 900 points in 1,000 games for the Orange and Black, Giroux now has three goals and eight points in five games against his former team.

Before the game, the Flyers announced that Tippett is day-to-day with a lower-body injury. According to NBCSP, Tippett skated earlier in the day, with head trainer Tommy Alva keeping a close eye. .... Shane Pinto made his season debut for the Senators and had an assist. Pinto was suspended for 41 games for violating the NHL’s gambling policy.

The Flyers host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday at 7 p.m. (NBCSP).