OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators were able to find their offence and snapped a four-game losing skid in the process.
Mark Stone and Bobby Ryan scored in the third period as the Ottawa Senators held on for 5-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.
"We capitalized on the scoring chances we had and we did a better job finding the back of the net and that's something we've been missing for quite some time now," Senators captain Erik Karlsson said, referencing his team's four wins in their last 20 games.
"The guys still know what they're doing and hopefully they get a little bit of relief and some belief in themselves."
Stone scored at 7:41 and Ryan at 9:21 for a two-goal advantage as the Sens broke a 3-3 tie. Those came after two goals late in the second period by the Senators to tie the game 3-3.
Derick Brassard, Nick Paul and Matt Duchene also had goals as the Senators (12-16-8) came back from a two-goal deficit. Mike Condon made 21 saves for the win in net.
Zach Werenski scored on the power play at 19:28 to cut the deficit to one for the Blue Jackets (22-14-3). Sonny Milano struck twice and Josh Anderson also chipped in.
"After they scored those two goals at the end of the second period, it gave them life. We just didn't come out strong in the third period and they did," Werenski said.
"We talked about it between periods, that it's going to happen, it's a tied hockey game and the next one's huge and we didn't elevate our game so it's kind of our fault, I think."
Sergei Bobrovsky made 23 saves in defeat and failed to collect the 200th win of his career.
The Blue Jackets were up 3-1 in the second when Paul sent a weak shot toward the net at 14:14 that Bobrovsky redirected off his stick, through his legs and in.
That started the comeback.
Columbus coach John Tortorella knew it was a bad goal, but said his team should be able to rebound from that, especially since they still had the lead.
"If we're not able to get our game back and get some kind of push going after that goal, then there's major problems," Tortorella said.
There was no scoring in the first period but that changed in the second with a total of six goals.
Milano scored his first at 4:15 when he put a rebound off the end boards past Condon one second after a penalty to Ryan expired.
The Senators got that one back at 5:42 when Brassard stole the puck from Jordan Schroeder at the side of the net and eventually put a backhand past Bobrovsky.
Anderson and Milano scored 13 seconds apart at 7:11 and 7:24, respectively, when they beat Condon first from the face-off dot to the left of the netminder and then the exact same spot to his right.
Duchene tied the game at 18:52 when he faked forehand before beating Bobrovsky with a backhand on a breakaway.
Notes: Ottawa's Fredrik Claesson served the first of a two-game suspension for he hit he delivered on Boston's Noel Acciari Wednesday. Dean Kukan was a scratch for the Blue Jackets. … Senators forward Alex Burrows remains one assist shy of 200 for his career. … Columbus assigned defenceman Gabriel Carlsson to Cleveland of the AHL prior to the game. … With his second-period assist, Blue Jackets defenceman Seth Jones set a career high with a point in six straight games.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press