OTTAWA -- Andrew Hammond thought he was off his game.

"I didn't really feel like I had my best," the Ottawa Senators goalie said Thursday. "I just felt like I was fighting the puck most of the night."

And yet, once again, it was a battle he won.

Hammond improved his NHL career regular season record to a remarkable 22-1-4 with a 33 save performance as the Senators defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Senators backup is now 2-0-2 this season.

"I thought where I put the puck after making that first save, wasn't the best position most of the night," said Hammond, who stopped all 19 shots he faced in the second period. "If anything I might have had something to do with (the 19 shots) because I was giving up the extra chances after."

Also fighting the puck, at an inopportune time anyway, was Canucks goalie Ryan Miller.

While Miller made 22 saves, the easy one that slipped his grasp was a point shot by Senators defenseman Chris Wideman with 1:55 to play for a goal that stood as the winner.

"It was a straight shot, it hit the top of my (catching glove) pocket," said Miller. "It's really not a good goal on my part. I blew it."

The win was the first in regulation time at home for the Senators (8-5-3), whose record at Canadian Tire Centre is now 3-3-2. The Canucks fell to 7-5-5 with the loss.

Defensemen Erik Karlsson had a goal and an assist to lead the Senators, while winger Bobby Ryan had the other and winger Mike Hoffman added two assists.

Scoring for the Canucks were winger Sven Baertschi and defenseman Alex Edler, who made it close with 24 seconds left in regulation.

The Canucks had some pressure over the final two dozen seconds, but couldn't create a quality scoring chance, marking the first time the Senators haven't had a third period meltdown in the last three games.

"Luckily we scored the third goal there, it helped us out a bit," said Karlsson. "I think overall we played better towards the end of the game today. I think we'd played a little bit more with poise, we didn't just throw the pucks away, just to throw them away. Even though sometimes it didn't go our way, I still think we backed each other up."

Also working in Ottawa's favor was a suddenly revived power play. The Senators were ranked 28th in the category as recently as Tuesday, but they've now scored five times on nine power play chances in the last three games.

"We're getting pucks on net and getting screens," said Turris. "We're moving it around pretty well, too. Good possession for long periods of time to tire out their penalty kill and give us more of a chance."

Karlsson broke a 1-1 tie with his second goal of the season, and second in two games, at the 14-minute mark of the middle period.

After going goal-less for the first 14 games of the season, he now has scored in each of the last two.

"I just think we played better as a team, and that creates more opportunities for individual plays, offensive plays," said Karlsson. "It opened up things."

The Canucks power play was 0-for-3 on the night and 0-for-19 in the last six games.

"We have enough zone time and enough puck to score more, but this year we keep losing these one goal games," said Canucks center Henrik Sedin. "I think it's mostly special teams. That's where it needs to be better. (Penalty killing) has done a great job and power play needs to step up.

"We know we have to be better. I still feel that right now we have the group that can score. We're setting up, we're winning faceoffs, it's just that last play where we can't put the puck in the net."

The Canucks will play their fourth of a seven game road trip when they take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Ottawa plays the second game of its five-game homestand Saturday afternoon when the New York Rangers visit.

"We played a lot better today, which we're going to have to do against Rangers on Saturday," said Karlsson. "They're one of the best teams in the league."

NOTES: Canucks C Brandon Sutter missed his first game of the season with a "nagging" injury. Sutter scored once in Vancouver's last outing and has four goals and eight points in 16 games with the Canucks. Taking Sutter's spot in the lineup was RW Jake Virtanen. ... Canucks D Alex Biega was also scratched. ... As a response to Ottawa's 7-5 loss on Tuesday in Nashville, Senators coach Dave Cameron made three lineup changes. D Patrick Wiercioch and LW Shane Prince were healthy scratches, replaced by D Chris Wideman and LW Matt Puempel, and backup G Andrew Hammond made his second start in three games by taking over from G Craig Anderson. ... Senators D Mark Borowiecki played his 100th NHL game. ... Canucks rookie D Ben Hutton, who grew up just outside of Ottawa, estimated he had about 100 friends and family in attendance.