Ottawa's Mike Fisher, left, and Steve Ott of Dallas jostle in front of Senators goalie Martin Gerber during Saturday's game. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Defenceman Jason Smith scored at 3:30 of overtime to give the host Ottawa Senators a 5-4 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.

The veteran moved in from the blue line and scored on a wrist shot to the short side past Marty Turco for his first goal in a Senators uniform.

Ottawa (12-14-5) won for just the second time in seven games.

"I don't score very many," Smith said. "But it's obviously nice to score a goal and help the team get a big win."

Antoine Vermette, Jason Spezza and Alex Picard all had power-play goals, with Daniel Alfredsson also scoring. Alfredsson played just nine minutes after being pushed into the boards by Jere Lehtinen of Dallas in the second period.

"I'll come in [Sunday] an evaluate it again," said the captain. "I don't think [it's too serious]. I haven't seen the replay, but I know he's there and I tried to get out of the way."

The Senators matched their goal output from the previous five games.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the outburst came against Turco and the Stars. While the Dallas goalie has allowed just one goal on four different occasions in December, he has yielded 17 goals in the other four starts.

He entered Saturday's game with the worst goals-against average (3.28) of any goalie with at least 20 starts.

"We gave that point away," said Stars coach Dave Tippett. "I don't think our goaltending was that great.

"I think [Turco] could have stopped a couple."

Martin Gerber, the better of the two Ottawa goalies the past 10 days, also struggled mightily.

Eriksson on fire

Gerber was beaten by Brad Richards, Toby Petersen and Matt Niskanen and Loui Eriksson, who scored for the sixth time in three games to help send the game in overtime.

Ottawa, scored upon on the very first shot on Friday in New Jersey, turned the tables at Scotiabank Place.

The Senators rushed up ice, with rookie Ilya Zubov helping set up Alfredsson for his 340th career goal.

Niskanen tied the game in the final minute of the period with a shot that Gerber allowed to go between his pads. While the Ottawa goalie looked shaky on the play, it was also true that Niskanen skated through the neutral zone uncontested by several Senators.

Just seconds after Spezza barely missed early in the second on a power play, Vermette took a pass down low from and stuffed it past Turco.

It was the forward's first goal in 20 games.

Dallas struck back with a power play of their one at the 7:37 mark. Richards snapped a shot through a screened Gerber and now has seven points in his last three games.

Loose puck

Just over two minutes later, Petersen grabbed a loose puck at the right face-off circle and drilled a shot over Gerber's pad.

The Ottawa goalie helped atone with an assist on the next goal of the game, a power-play marker. Spezza finished the play by sweeping in from the left corner to the front of the net, beating Turco over the glove for his first goal in six games.

Chris Neil didn't get a point on the goal that made it 4-3 Ottawa, but he played a big role. The pesky forward screened Turco, allowing Picard's power-play shot from the point to hit the net at 1:36 of the third.

Seconds after Dallas hit the post, Eriksson tied the game with just over five minutes left with his 18th. Ottawa defenceman Anton Volchenkov lost his stick on the play, enabling Eriksson to convert from the slot.

Dallas dropped to 13-14-5 as a result of Smith's heroics.

Ottawa returns on Tuesday with a game in Philadelphia.

With files from the Canadian Press