OTTAWA - The Ottawa Senators victory was far from pretty, but they were more than happy to pick up two points.

The Senators snapped a three-game losing streak as Bobby Ryan scored the shootout winner Tuesday night to give Ottawa a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

"With the position that we're in we need to find a way every night to rally for two points and that's the start of it," said Ryan, who is now 6 for 8 in the shootout this season. "Now we need to get ready for a different test two days from now."

Ryan Dzingel also scored for the Senators (26-26-6), who will host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday. Craig Anderson made 38 saves for the win.

Matt Moulson scored the lone goal for the Sabres (23-28-7) as Robin Lehner stopped 25 shots.

The Sabres are 2-19 in the shootout.

Under siege by one of the city's worst snowfalls in history the game was played in front of an announced crowd of 15,893, but in reality only about half of that showed up.

The Senators fell behind early, but seemed to get better as the game progressed.

"I think we had a really strong game and we deserved this win," said a disappointed Lehner. "I mean (Anderson) played well, but we were unlucky too with a few posts and offside goal and a few open netters that we didn't get to, but that's the way it is sometimes."

Anderson was the difference for much of the game including a huge save on Jack Eichel with 15 seconds remaining in overtime to force the shootout.

"I didn't think we had our 'A' game," said Senators coach Dave Cameron. "No excuses, but we had some guys with the flu, some guys we weren't sure were going to play and they came in and found a way to get two points and that's huge. They battled and stayed with it."

Tied 1-1 after two Ottawa's third period was probably its best, but the Senators were unable to beat Lehner and were forced to overtime.

Anderson was the only reason the game remained tied after 40 minutes as Buffalo outshot Ottawa 18-9. He made a number of big saves to keep the Senators in this game.

"I think we lost momentum in the second period a little bit," said Anderson. "It kind of went back and forth, but in the third I think we came out and set the tone and we're able to generate some momentum going into the shootout."

Once again Ottawa gave up the first goal as Eichel made a brilliant behind the back pass to Moulson who beat Anderson short side at the six-minute mark of the first.

The Senators tied the game just over a minute later as Dzingel whacked away at a rebound and finally got it past Lehner for his first NHL goal.

"It was awesome," said Dzingel of his first goal. "A lot of emotion thinking about my family and a couple of my friends' moms passed away and I told them I would get one for them so a lot of emotion.

"It felt good to get the first one."

The Sabres were without Evander Kane as he was suspended for the game after missing practice Monday.

Nick Paul made his NHL debut, he was the sixth player to do so this year for Ottawa.

The Senators rewarded fans who braved poor road conditions to make it to the game by offering 50 per cent off an upcoming game and a free ticket to those who were unable to attend due to the weather. Nearly 50 centimetres of snow fell in Ottawa on Tuesday.

Notes: D Mark Borowiecki missed his first game of the season due to an upper body injury. LW Shane Prince was a healthy scratch. Sabres Brian Gionta played his 900th NHL career game. Forward Johan Larsson returned to the lineup after missing the past four games with a lower-body injury. Bobby Ryan scored the shootout winner as the Senators defeated the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 Tuesday night, snapping Ottawa's three-game losing streak.