Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Mike Knuble broke a deadlock early in the third period and Philadelphia hung on to beat Ottawa, 3-1, in the first game for the Senators since the firing of coach John Paddock.

Knuble ended with two goals and James Dowd also tallied, while Kimmo Timonen had a pair of assists and Martin Biron ended with 32 saves for the Flyers, who have won two straight on the heels of a 10-game skid.

Jason Spezza had the lone goal and Ray Emery turned aside 34 shots for the free-falling Senators, who have dropped three straight and 16 of their 27 games since the beginning of the year. They have dropped five of their last six on the road and fell to 17-11-3 away from Scotiabank Place.

Despite Ottawa's hot start to the campaign and first-place standing in the Northeast Division, Paddock on Wednesday became the third NHL coach to be fired this season, joining Glen Hanlon in Washington and Bob Hartley in Atlanta.

General Manager Bryan Murray, who was at the helm during the franchise's only Stanley Cup finals appearance in 2006-07, has returned to the bench for the final 18 games of the regular season.

"When you lose some games and the pressure mounts, and it's mainly pressure from within, it's hard to play, it's hard to relax, it's hard to coach," said Murray after the game.

After a scoreless first period in which both sides wasted a power play opportunity, Ottawa struck on the man-advantage in the second period.

With Dowd off for interference, Spezza put the Sens on top at 6:33 when he deflected Andrej Meszaros' slapper from the point past Biron. Things only got more interesting from there, as Biron shoved Spezza, who was celebrating in front of the crease.

Several players from both sides joined the scrum, but it was Spezza who was handed a five minute major and game misconduct for jamming the end of his stick into the stomach of a Flyers' player.

"Plain and simple, he is in our building and celebrating at the top of my crease," explained Biron. "And celebrating for one-one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand by himself, just showing me up in front of everybody. I did not like it, and I was not going to accept that."

Philadelphia quickly cashed in, as Dowd took a pass from Riley Cote, raced toward the net and found the open corner on the far side to tie the game at 13:32.

Knuble then made it 2-1 just 41 seconds into the third, as he stationed himself in front of the crease and deflected a shot by Jason Smith with the top of his skate.

Timonen helped to add the insurance goal at 6:30 when he hit Scottie Upshall with an outlet pass. Upshall then attempted to jam the puck through Emery's pads, before it squeezed under his leg and was pushed over the goal line by Knuble and a sliding Ottawa player.