OTTAWA -- In the end, halting a four-game winning streak turned out to be pretty simple stuff for the Calgary Flames,

"It's hard to miss those empty nets," winger John Gaudreau said of his deciding goal at 4:29 of overtime to defeat the Ottawa Senators 3-2 Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre.

Gaudreau and Mikael Backlund threw the puck back and forth on a 2-on-0 before Gaudreau finally whipped it home.

"It was a great play by him and it was a big win by us," said Gaudreau. "It was an important game for us."

Micheal Ferland and Sean Monahan also scored for the Flames (25-24-3), who received a 25-save goaltending performance from Brian Elliott.

Tommy Wingels and Chris Wideman scored for the Senators (26-15-6) tallied for the Senators, while Mike Condon stopped 23 shots.

The Senators have now picked up at least a point in each of their last six games, but coach Guy Boucher wasn't happy with the performance on this night.

"We weren't there the first two periods. We just weren't," said Boucher. "That's probably our worst outing since the Anaheim game (a 5-1 loss Dec. 11). Why? My opinion is I think we didn't fear them. We talked about them coming out hard and being desperate to win. The last week we played against opponents that are high in the standings, hockey machines that you could have fear , against, and I think we lacked a bit of respect tonight, in terms of the fear factor."

Indeed, the Senators trailed 2-0 before showing signs of life in the third.

Playing in his first game for Ottawa after being acquired in a trade with San Jose on Tuesday, Wingels deflected home a shot by Fredrik Claesson at the 2:01 mark to start the comeback.

Wideman sent the game into overtime on a point shot with 1:02 left in regulation and Condon on the bench for an extra attacker.

"You think about trying to score and impact the game when you first get there and I found a way to do it tonight," said Wingels. "I'll tell you what. The first 40 minutes weren't good. But a resilient team comes back and finds a way to get a point. Did we want two? Absolutely. But I learned a lot about guys in this room, in this one night. This team battles. It's a fun group to be a part of. It's fun to see this team doesn't give up."

The nicest goal came from Monahan, who scored Calgary's second by picking up a rebound and putting his stick between his legs to fire a shot over a sprawled Condon.

"I had to ask him when he came in here, 'did you go between your legs?' " said Elliott. "This is the NHL. That stuff is not allowed."

Condon was impressed as well.

"I thought I was in good position, and he showed a lot of poise to drag it away from me and put it between his legs," said Condon. "You don't really expect that from a player. It's just a good poised play by him."

The Flames as a team had a good response after being publicly ripped by coach Glen Gulutzan on Tuesday, following a 5-1 loss in Montreal.

"Tonight I think we accomplished a few things," said Gulutzan. "One, I thought we did a pretty good job. We were tight checking tonight. We gave ourselves a chance. Our penalty kill was real good, but more importantly some guys who needed a little boost got it. (Ferland), Johnny, (Monahan). They all got some big goals for us and I thought our defense played well and our goalie played well.

"It was something to head into the break and build off."

Gaudreau is hoping so after ending his slump at 12 games.

"We weren't good enough the last couple of games and that hurt our club," said Monahan. "We need to regroup and come in here tonight and do whatever we could to get the two points whether it was going into OT, a shootout, whatever it was. Johnny and Backs made a great move to end it for us."

NOTES: Senators RW Chris Neil was a healthy scratch for the first time since the 2015 playoffs. The 37-year old veteran was bumped to make room for the debut of F Tommy Wingels. ... Senators D Mark Borowiecki missed his fifth game with a stomach virus but did practice with the team in the morning. ... Senators LW Mike Hoffman return after missing one game with an illness. ... Flames C Freddie Hamilton was a healthy scratch for the second game in a row while D Jyrki Jokipakka was a healthy scratch for the third consecutive contest.