Nick Floigno and the Columbus Blue Jackets simply outmanned the Ottawa Senators.
Ryan Johansen, R.J. Umberger and Fedor Tyutin each scored power-play goals, leading the Blue Jackets over Ottawa 4-1 on Sunday.
Special teams were clearly the difference in this game. Ottawa was 0 for 5 with the man advantage, scoring its only goal on a 5-on-3.
''Our power play was huge and our penalty kill was great,'' said Floigno, who played his first game against the Senators since being traded to Columbus in July 2012. ''This was a big win for our team and gives us confidence.''
Derek MacKenzie also scored for Columbus (7-10-3), and Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 30 shots.
''When your goalie's making big saves, you want to work for him at the other end and get some goals,'' Johansen said. ''Everybody was really good.''
Erik Karlsson scored the lone goal for the Senators (8-8-4) in the third period. Craig Anderson made 18 saves.
A brawl broke out in the third period after Ottawa's Mark Borowiecki caught Jared Boll with his head down. James Wisniewski quickly came to his teammate's defense and fought Borowiecki. The two were tossed from the game once the penalties were sorted out.
''I was just trying to finish a check,'' Borowiecki said. ''I would never want to hurt someone or put someone in jeopardy physically or anything like that. I was just trying to make a hard play and what happened, happened.''
The small matinee crowd of 15,535 grew quiet after the Blue Jackets grabbed a 3-0 lead with two goals in the second period.
Senators coach Paul MacLean said he is struggling to understand how his team can play so well one night and so poorly the next.
''At some point and time when you hit 30 (games) you are what you are, and if this is what we are as an inconsistent group, it's not going to be much fun,'' MacLean said.
''We'll examine all that stuff and we'll see if we need to make changes, but we need to do something. At the end of the day, it comes down to the guys wearing the sweaters. They have to be ready to play.''
Umberger managed to get his stick on the rebound after Johansen took a shot from inside the blue line. Then the Blue Jackets made the most of a two-man advantage when Tyutin scored his second of the season at 12:07.
MacKenzie put the game away when he made it 4-0 with his second goal at the five-minute mark of the third.
The Senators finally solved Bobrovsky when Karlsson scored his seventh of the season with Ottawa enjoying a two-man advantage at 17:33 of the third.
''We can't keep battling back every game because it's not going to work,'' Karlsson said. ''We're 20 games in and it seems like there's a lot of games left to be played, but if we don't start showing up soon it's going to be over quick.''
NOTES: D Patrick Wiercioch, D Joe Corvo and forward Matt Kassian were healthy scratches for the Senators. . . . Forward Jack Skille and D Dalton Prout were healthy scratches for the Blue Jackets.
