The Ottawa Senators continue to breathe down the necks of the NHL Northeast Division-leading Buffalo Sabres.

The Senators notched their 12th win in the last 13 games with a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the visiting Calgary Flames on Tuesday.

The win also snapped the Sens' five-game losing streak against the Flames (29-22-9), who have now lost two straight.

Ottawa (34-22-4) moved into a tie in points with the Sabres, who picked up a solitary point in their shootout loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

"We've done a tremendous job of putting ourselves in a great position come the last stretch after the break," Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "We should be proud of what we've done here so far and hopefully we can carry on those last three games before the break and come back with a good mindset."

Buffalo (32-18-8) still controls the division and the third seed in the Eastern Conference by virtue of having the better point-percentage, having played two fewer games.

Jason Spezza's bad-angle goal late in the second period was his 10th goal in as many games and stood up as the game winner for Ottawa

Calgary's Jarome Iginla had two assists — his ninth and 10th points in the last eight games — in a losing effort.

For better or worse for their new team, two former Toronto Maple Leafs had a hand in both goals in the first period.

Niklas Hagman scored his first goal as a Flame to open the scoring 16:51 in, thanks to a great feed from Iginla.

With the Calgary captain leading a 3-on-2 rush into the Senators zone, Hagman took a pass in the slot and launched a slapshot over the glove of Brian Elliot and into the top corner.

That lead lasted only 19 seconds as an interference penalty assessed to another new Flame, Ian White, was converted off a pinballing shot by Alex Kovalev.

With 2:50 remaining in the first, Kovalev had his shot from the faceoff circle deflect past Miikka Kiprusoff off both Calgary's Jay Bouwmeester and Daymond Langkow.

Iginla feeding new Flames

The second period saw another new Flame benefiting from a pinpoint pass from Iginla.

Heading into the low slot on a rush into the Ottawa zone, Matt Stajan took a backhand pass from Iginla, made a quick deke on Elliot before lifting the puck over the goalie's blocker to re-take the lead 3:18 into the second period.

Stajan and Hagman each finished with a goal and an assist, but that was the last goal given up by the Senators goalie, who rebounded from getting the hook in their last game, a 5-0 loss to Toronto on Saturday.

"It didn't take us long to get back out on the ice and prove that we're the team that we are. We've just got to keep doing this on every night and not have off nights," Elliott said.

The Senators' Jonathan Cheechoo looked to have the tying goal on his stick about five minutes after the Stajan goal, but Kiprusoff absolutely robbed the struggling forward as he tried to stuff in a wraparound attempt.

Diving across his crease, Kiprusoff denied an almost sure goal as he laid his outstretched stick across the goal-line to deny Cheechoo's chance.

But the Finnish goaltender couldn't stop the next shot he faced, a Jarkko Ruutu wrister that tied the game with just over half the period left to go. The Senators pest got the chance after the Flames coughed up the puck on their own half-boards.

Calgary got a scare soon after when Hagman left the ice favouring his left shoulder following an open-ice hit from behind by Senators defenceman Anton Volchenkov. Hagman went to the dressing room but returned to the ice before the end of the period.

Spezza put his team on top for good with his weird-angle shot with 3:23 to go in the middle frame.

Sitting at the bottom of the faceoff circle on Kiprusoff's glove side, Spezza took a pass across the slot from Cheechoo and proceeded to rifle the puck from on one knee, sending the Senators to the dressing room at the second intermission with a 3-2 lead.

"I'm just trying to get myself around the net and capitalizing on my chances," said Spezza. "The team is playing real well and individuals do well when the team is playing well.

"We've got to win a couple of games here and then get some rest [during the Olympics]. These are important games and everybody's looking forward to the rest. It's been a tough grind."

The Flames managed only six shots in the scoreless third period.

"I'm not happy at all," Flames coach Brent Sutter said. "That game was there for us tonight to get some points and we just didn't play a good enough game here after the first 28 minutes to expect to win. It wasn't good enough."

with files from the Canadian Press