Blue Jackets 4, Senators 3, OT .

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Jakob Voracek, a healthy scratch in the last two games because of a lack of production, scored an unassisted goal off a quirky bounce off the back boards in overtime to give the Blue Jackets a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.

The puck took a big ricochet and Ottawa's Alex Kovalev and Chris Campoli were unable to corral it. Voracek swooped in and forced the puck between goalie Brian Elliott's leg pads 2:06 into the overtime.

Voracek's goal touched off a wild celebration on the ice and sent a crowd of 17,652 home happy. They were not pleased to have their New Year's Eve revelry delayed by Daniel Alfredsson's goal with 1:11 left in regulation that pushed the game into overtime.

"We showed a lot of character," Senators head coach Cory Clouston said. "Through (half of) the second period, we had seven or eights shots to their none. We worked hard against a good team that skated well. We're happy with the point, but we're disappointed with the loss."

Mike Fisher and Nick Foligno also scored for the Senators, who dominated play for most of the last two periods but continue to be undone by a lack of offence. They are in 27th in the NHL with 89 goals.

The victory came one night after Columbus' 3-2 win in Toronto that ended a seven-game winless skid on the road. The Blue Jackets have won five of their last seven at home.

R.J. Umberger, Rick Nash and Samuel Pahlsson provided a 3-0 lead for the Blue Jackets. Steve Mason, who took much of the blame for the Blue Jackets' slide earlier in December, had 35 saves.

After Umberger opened the scoring on a one-timer off a 3-on-2 break, the Senators offered up a gift goal when Chris Phillips lost control of the puck as he was skating through his own crease. Columbus' Chris Clark poked it away from Phillips with Pahlsson converting.

Nash then scored off a nifty pass from Kristian Huselius on an odd-man rush.

The Senators kept the puck in their offensive zone for long segments of the third period while applying pressure. They nearly tied it when Kovalev's wrister from the left dot with just over eight minutes left rang off the far post.

"They made mistakes. We made mistakes. They capitalized on ours," Clouston said.

NOTES: Columbus D Jan Hejda played his 300th NHL game ... The Senators have scored more than three goals only once in their last 24 starts ... Columbus came in with the worst home power play in the NHL and was 0-for-4 ... Former Senators centre Antoine Vermette picked up his 100th point in his 136th career game with Columbus ... The Senators return home to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on New Year's Day (7 p.m., CBC, Team 1200).