Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Flyers come back to beat Capitals, take over sole possession of final Wild Card spot

GABxQsabFfFK
The Flyers picked up two big points by beating the Capitals in a shootout and now have sole possession of the last Wild Card spot.

Well, a first-round playoff series between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals could be spicy -- if Wednesday’s game was any indication.

Down a goal after Alex Ovechkin ripped home his 44th of the season early in the third period, the Flyers came back to earn a 2-1 shootout victory in a thriller that included killing off a full four-on-three Washington power play in the overtime period.

Nick Cousins and Sam Gagner scored for Philadelphia in the shootout, while Steve Mason stopped T.J. Oshie and then robbed Evgeny Kuznetsov with the glove save, adding a little flare to it at the end.

That’s a huge win for Philadelphia. (Understatement.)

The Flyers move two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and that’s still with a game in hand on the Red Wings and six remaining on their schedule.

Now, as for that possible first-round match-up? As it stands now, it would be the Flyers facing the top-ranked Capitals in the opening round, which could make for a fun series between the two Metropolitan teams.

There was great goaltending between Mason and Braden Holtby and a physical-bordering-on-nasty element to this game, with Jason Chimera catching Shayne Gostisbehere with the butt-end of his stick to the midsection of the Flyers rookie.