Chris Campoli, left, and teammate Fillip Kuba rough up Sabres forward Adam Mair near the Ottawa net. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

Nick Foligno and Daniel Alfredsson scored a pair of goals each to lead the hard-finishing Ottawa Senators to a 6-3 win over the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

After Chris Campoli put the Senators ahead 4-3 just before the midpoint of the third, Foligno completed a two-on-one with Ryan Shannon, and Alfredsson blasted home a slapshot 81 seconds later to salt away the game.

"I had some great plays by my linemates," Foligno, who was set up by Mike Fisher on his second-period goal, told Hockey Night in Canada.

Chris Kelly also scored for Ottawa (25-29-10), which beat the Sabres for the fourth time in five meetings this season and won its second straight overall.

Brian Elliott made 27 saves for a Senators team that is 12th in the Eastern Conference and is all but assured of seeing an end to its streak of 11 consecutive post-season appearances.

Buffalo (33-26-7) came into the night one point out of the final playoff spot in the East, but failed to gain ground despite going 3-for-5 on the power play. Drew Stafford, Thomas Vanek and Jochen Hecht had the goals.

The Sabres were coming off back-to-back 5-1 home wins over Phoenix and Montreal, but have now dropped four in row on the road (0-3-1).

Former Senator Patrick Lalime — Ottawa's all-time wins leader — stopped 30 shots for Buffalo.

Alfie reaches 20-goal plateau

Alfredsson opened the scoring 4:44 in, firing the puck home from the left-wing boards for his 350th NHL goal.

Stafford replied with his own power-play marker at 10:38, and the game stayed tied until just past the midpoint of the second period. That's when Shean Donovan slammed on the breaks along the left wing and found Kelly in the high slot for a one-timer that zipped past Lalime's glove.

Buffalo tied it at 2-2 with 1:45 left in the frame as Vanek notched his 33rd of the season. Like Alfredsson, Vanek was wearing a shield over his face as he recovers from a broken jaw.

Foligno put Ottawa back in the lead with just 32 second left in the frame. Working a textbook cycle in the corner with Fisher, Foligno got free, went to the net and converted Fisher's feed from behind the goal line.

"We had opportunities to capture momentum, but I thought the end of the second period hurt us," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said. "We swung off a guy down in our zone and lost coverage and instead of us getting momentum off the goal we scored, we gave them momentum."

After Hecht drew Buffalo even for the third time on the night, Campoli put the Sens ahead for good with 9:35 to play when his wrister from the boards beat Lalime, who was screened by Peter Regin.

Foligno got his second of the night — and seventh since Cory Clouston took over as Ottawa's coach on Feb. 2 — by acting as the trigger man for Ryan Shannon, who faked a slapshot to get defenceman Toni Lydman to flop to the ice before sliding the puck to Foligno for an easy tap-in with 4:44 left.

"Completely unselfish," Foligno told Hockey Night in Canada. "That's the kind of player [Shannon] is."

Alfredsson added insult to injury with 3:23 left, firing a shot past Lalime from close range to reach the 20-goal plateau for the ninth straight season.

The blast also ensured Alfredsson's former teammate would drop to 2-3-1 since taking over for injured Sabres starter Ryan Miller, who is out indefinitely with a left high ankle sprain.