OTTAWA - Daniel Alfredsson has had many milestones during his 15-year NHL career with the Ottawa Senators. His latest was a little more special than the others.
With his parents and other family members in the stands, Alfredsson scored his 400th career goal as the Senators came back to beat the Calgary Flames 4-3 on Friday.
While on a power play, Alfredsson took a pass from Erik Karlsson and fired a one-timer past Calgary goaltender Leland Irving at 3:31 of overtime.
"I don't think you could dream about a better way to do it," Alfredsson said.
"In overtime, playing at home and to be able to share that with teammates that you fight with every day, and also my family that's here and the fans, it's special."
The Senators were playing four on three after Rene Bourque took a holding penalty in overtime deep in the Ottawa end. The puck cycled between Karlsson, Jason Spezza and Chris Neil as they peppered shots at Irving in the Calgary goal.
"We got the power play and the coach told me to be on the point with Erik, and I've been shooting my one-timer pretty good the last little while, especially in practice, so I felt if I had a good lane I'm going to shoot the puck," Alfredsson said.
Karlsson kept setting Alfredsson up until finally it paid off.
"Erik was adamant about feeding me and I was able to find a lane at the end and it felt pretty good to see it go in," he said.
Karlsson scored 4:48 in the third period as the Senators forced overtime after falling behind 3-0 in the first.
Nick Foligno and Zack Smith also scored for the Senators (18-15-5).
Rene Bourque, Curtis Glencross and Chris Butler scored for the Flames (18-16-5), while Irving made 45 saves.
After Calgary took a quick 3-0 lead, Foligno and Smith scored in the second period to turn a potential blowout into a tightly contested game. The Senators had other opportunities in the second but Irving held his ground.
Craig Anderson was perfect with 17 saves after taking over from Alex Auld, who started and allowed three goals on 15 shots before coach Paul MacLean made the goaltending switch during the first intermission.
"I don't think that had anything to do with it," said MacLean when asked if he thought the goaltending switch was the difference in the game.
"I thought the whole team had a bad start but we responded in the second period and also in the third."
Butler's goal with 71 seconds left in the first period helped chase Auld from the Ottawa goal. Butler took a shot from 15 feet inside the Senators' blue-line and Auld, who wasn't screened, wasn't square to the puck and missed it.
Bourque opened the scoring just 23 seconds into the game when his shot from the corner somehow beat Auld. Glencross gave the Flames a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal at 6:25.
"We had a couple of breakdowns here and there and we need to have a more disciplined game," Flames defenceman Cory Sarich said.
"There was some starting and stopping and all the little things that help bottle up a team. We were too loose and allowing them to skate and that was part of our problem."
Notes: The Senators closed out their 2011 home schedule Friday night and with the win over Calgary they went 18-18-4 at Scotiabank Place during the start to the season. They are 34-38-8 overall in 2011 with a one game remaining New Year's Eve in Buffalo. ... Matt Carkner was a healthy scratch Friday night for the Senators, as were Clay Wilson, Derek Smith and Greg Nemisz for the Flames.
