A suddenly hot Ottawa Fury FC gave its playoff hopes a big boost Saturday night with a 3-0 blanking of the Atlanta Silverbacks.

Forward Pierre-Rudolph Mayard opened the scoring in the third minute after midfielder Tony Donatelli lobbed the ball into Silverbacks box and striker Tommy Heinemann flicked it on goal for Mayard to poke in as Ottawa picked up its second-straight win.

The early marker stood as the winner, with Oliver and Carl Haworth -- returning from an ankle injury as a second-half substitute added insurance markers in the 38th and 83rd minute, respectively, to secure the result.

The road result allows Fury to pass Atlanta in the standings, with Ottawa now sitting seventh on the NASL fall season table, just four back of the fourth-place Carolina RailHawks.

"It's important to keep our dream alive," Fury head coach Marc Dos Santos said following the game. "We have a dream in the locker room and it's healthy. Our dream is to make the playoffs. It's an ambitious one, it's one that seems a little bit impossible, but we're fighting a game at a time.

"We're praying, we're working, and things are getting together."

Having dropped four consecutive games early in the season, Dos Santos has repeatedly said every one of his team's games is bigger than the last. This one was no different, though the result rarely seemed in doubt after Oliver's goal -- his third in three games -- as the Brazilian picked up a rebound near the goal line after Heinemann put a shot on Atlanta keeper Eric Ati and made no mistake in the 38th minute.

Atlanta put pressure on Ottawa in parts of the first 45 minutes, but didn't make life nearly difficult enough on Ottawa's back line or keeper Romuald Peiser, who wasn't particularly busy but was there when called upon in picking up his second-straight clean sheet.

"Atlanta was a big problem for us," Dos Santos said of Saturday's opposition. "They have pieces up top that are very fast and dangerous and we were able to (stop) them."

Despite seeing Fury players shown yellow cards, it was Atlanta who had the only player sent off with Pablo Cruz shown a red for a late-game, studs-up tackle on Ottawa captain Richie Ryan.

Ottawa returns home next weekend to host Minnesota Sunday afternoon at TD Place. "

chris.hofley@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @chrishofley