FLYERS EARN TWO VITAL POINTS, DOWN CAPS 2-1 VIA SHOOTOUT

In a game that easily could have been mistaken for playoff hockey, the Philadelphia Flyers scratched out one vital point after 60 minutes of intense hockey against the Washington Capitals. After surviving an overtime penalty kill and going to the attack in the latter portion of OT, the Flyers got another point in a two-round shootout to prevail, 2-1, over the President's Trophy winning Capitals.

After two scoreless periods in which the Flyers carried the majority of the play, Washington superstar Alexander Ovechkin sniped an early third period power play goal to give the Capitals a 1-0 lead. A Brayden Schenn deflection goal with 5:28 left in the third period knotted the score at 1-1.

In the skills competition, the host Flyers elected to defend first and won in two rounds as T.J. Oshie and Evgeny Kuznetsov were stoned on their attempts and Nick Cousins and Sam Gagner converted theirs.

“Every game is great intensity. Great intensity out there tonight, obviously we needed those points we probably had a little more on the line then they did tonight. It was a good hockey game, great energy in the building and for us it was a result that we needed," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said.

Once again, the Flyers received fantastic goaltending from Steve Mason, who denied 29 of 30 shots against on the two most dangerous offensive teams in the NHL. He then went 2-for-2 in the shootout, and has now stopped six of the last seven attempts he has faced.

Mason has started 12 of the Flyers' last 13 games. Even though the team, after two nights off, will have six games within nine days and nights, the plan appears to be to ride Mason every game until/unless the team is locked into a playoff spot.

"I feel good. I said earlier at pregame skate it would be a lot more difficult if we weren’t in the playoff run. You know because of the games and how meaningful and fun they are to be a part of it makes playing a lot easier I think," Mason said.

Washington counterpart Braden Holtby, who is hunting for a 50-win season and is a top contender for the 2015-16 Vezina Trophy, was outstanding in his own right. Everything he saw, he stopped.

"We actually talked about it after the second. It was going to have to be a kind of greasy goal. If he sees the puck he’s going to stop it. So we got to get in front of him," Giroux said.

Holtby denied 32 of 34 shots during the hockey game before yielding back-to-back tallies in the shootout.

Schenn's goal was his 25th of the season. He was also credited with a game-high eight hits and a pair of takeaways. Claude Giroux (43rd assist) and Wayne Simmonds (27 assists) got the helpers. Giroux went 17-for-26 (65 percent) on faceoffs to lead the Flyers on a night where they won 59 percent of the draws.

"I’ve been saying it for a while; it’s a process for us. We are learning a lot. The identity of this team, we are slowly realizing what it is by winning games, by being successful. We know what we have to do to win. Sometimes during games we start doing different stuff and we see it doesn’t work so we go back to what works and we’re being successful right now," Giroux said.

Kuznetsov and Justin Williams assisted on Ovechkin's goal.

In addition to Mason's stellar work in goal, he got help boxing out in front and the team came up with 26 blocked shots. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare alone had a half-dozen blocks. Radko Gudas was a beast on the lineline, racking out four hits, three blocks and 22:49 of ice time. Nick Schultz came up with four blocks.

"The guys did an unbelievable job tonight, especially on the PK there in overtime blocking shots. All game long the amount of shots that were blocked, the guys sacrificed themselves. You know that’s the type of hockey that wins games and were going to need that moving forward," Mason said.

Each team scored one power play goal on three attempts. One of the Philadelphia man advantages was very brief, however. Washington hit the post once on an overtime four-on-three power play.

The first shot of the game was an 88-foot Evgeny Kuznetsov dribbler in on Mason at the 40-second mark. Matt Niskanen hammered a shot through traffic that Mason knocked into the corner at 3:44.

Shots were 2-2 as Brayden Schenn got blocked trying a single-angle spin-o-rama on a carom off the end boards at 4:38. Bellemare got hit behind the Caps net by Brooks Orpik at 5:25. He got up slowly and went off.

Matt Read had a good look in close but shot the puck over the net from 10 feet away at 6:32. At 7:19, Mason denied Kuznetsov on the doorstep.

A few Schenn tried to throw a big hit on John Carlson behind the Caps net at 9:05 but took a seat n the ice himself. Claude Giroux body checked Orpik seconds later. The Flyers kept possession and generated some pressure.

With 7:34 left in the period, Holtby found a Mark Streit shot through traffic and held on for a stoppage and a TV timeout. Shots were 7-6 in the Flyers' favor.

The Flyers got the game's first powerplay at 12:45. T.J. Oshie was sent off for tripping Sam Gagner in the neutral zone. The top power play unit generated good puck movement. Jakub Voracek got blocked on a one-timer and Simmonds was denied from the slot. With the second unit out, Holtby snared a center point shot by Couturier. Holtby made a late routine save on a left-side shot above the circles by Voracek.

Mason got bumped into by Justin Williams going by the net with about four minutes left in the period. Holtby picked a Streit shot through a maze of bodies and held for a stoppage at 18:57.

Things got scrambly in the Flyers' zone in the final minute. Shayne Gostisbehere prevented a possible slam-dunk cross-ice play and then Mason melted down the play with a point shot save.

Nick Schultz and Alexander Ovechkin were sent off for roughing after the horn sounded, to set up two minutes of four-on-four play to start the second period. Shots in the first period were 13-11 in the Flyers' favor. Shot attempts were 26-19 Flyers (13 on goal, 10 blocked, 3 missed for the Flyers to 11 on net, 5 blocked and 3 misses by the Caps).

Schenn had a breakaway in the opening minute of the second period, but his 12-foot wrister was turned aside by Holtby. Moments later, Mason stopped a tricky Kuznetsov backhander from 14 feet. At 3:02, Holtby

Ovechkin wheeled the puck up the ice, cut across the middle and hit the post from the right circle at 3:57 as he worked through a Schultz slash and a Michael Raffl hook.

Holtby cleanly stopped a Ryan White one-timer inside the top of the right circle. Philly changed lines and the Nick Cousins line continued the pressure on the next shift. At 6;20 Gagner made a great pass-out to find a wide open Cousins at the doorstep but the point-blank shot was right into Holtby's glove.

The Couturier line had a promising looking rush but ran out of room and could not jam in a puck in close. At the other end, Gostisbehere broke up a play by sticking with his check in front rather than chasing the puck carrier behind the net. With 10:07 left in the period, Holtby denied Raffl from point-blank range. Shot were 10-3 Flyers (23-14 for the game).

Mason came up with a tough save on a Nicklas Bäckström deflection at 10:22, seconds after Schenn laid a solid hit on Niskanen.

Gudas picked Ovechkin's pocket on a one-on-one rush near the 13-minute mark, drawing a big cheer from the crowd. With 4:40 left, the Caps had a solid forechecking shift end on a deflected puck out of play. The Flyers did a good job at keeping everything contained to the perimeters and Gudas blocked a shot along the way.

Couturier lost a good scoring chance in close by electing not to shoot it and then forcing a pass intended for Voracek. Justin Williams went offside at the other end.

Jason Chimera got away with a blatant butt-ending on Gostisbehere as he skated around behind the Flyers net on a stoppage of play with 2:22 left.

After a very, very long delayed penalty where the Caps moved the puck all around the offensive zone, Manning went off for hooking. The penalty was the first the Flyers took that left them shorthanded in 129 minutes, 18 seconds dating back to the Arizona game. Philly killed off the front end of the penalty, leaving 1:36 of carryover time entering the third period.

Shots were 10-7 Flyers in the second period; 23-18 Flyers through two periods.

Schultz blocked an Ovechkin one-timer as the Manning penalty continued. With eight seconds left, though, Ovechkin measured and sniped a tracer into the long side top corner and scored for his 44th goal of the season. Assists went to Kuznetsov and Williams at 1:27.

A Gostisbehere turnover caused a Washington counter and some anxious moments around the net around the six minute mark as Oshie and Chimera generated shots in scoring range and Jay Beagle missed on a wraparound with Mason trapped and scrambling to get over. Holtby denied a Simmonds right circle shot off a Schenn feed on the rush at

With 12:24 left -- after getting tangled up with Bäckström on a hit at the other end -- Giroux was cross-checked into the end boards behind the Caps net. Just 23 seconds into the power play, White received an interference penalty (more like a debatable boarding penalty) behind the Caps' net.

On a Caps rush, Beagle crashed into Mason at 9:56, knocking the goalie backward and the net off its moorings. There was no goalie interference penalty. Hostilities flared at a stoppage in the Washington end with at 11:18. Tom Wilson and Gagner got coincidental roughing penalties after the whistle. Play moved to 4-on-4. Shots in the period were 4-4; 27-22 Flyers for the game.

With 21 seconds of 4-on-4 left, Marcus Johansson got the gate for a hook to give the Flyers a short 4-on-3. Giroux won the draw but Voracek lost a battle on the walls and the Caps cleared. As play went to 5-on-4, Schenn swept a Gostisbehere rebound over to Voracek but the play was not finished.

Giroux and Schenn took care of it from there. On a pass around the wall by Simmonds, Giroux put a left point shot at the net and Schenn (25th goal of the season) tipped in a power play goal at 14:32 from 12 feet from the net to tie the game at 1-1.

“He’s having an unbelievable year, probably the top goalie in the league and he was definitely feeling it tonight," Schenn said of Holtby.

"I think when you play you play against that D-corps they don’t give you a whole lot. They’re pretty tough in front of the net. So it was going to take a greasy goal and we got one. I just saw the huge lane that G [Claude Giroux] had and saw him winding up and I just tried to get a stick on it and it hit the middle of my shaft and it was nice to get one.”

The Caps generated the next two scoring chances right after the goal. Mason stopped Niskanen and Carlson on bang-bang plays.

After his bad penalty, White was benched for a shift late in the third period. Read took his place.

Washington iced the puck with 3:09 left in regulation. On an attempted stretch pass on a breakout, the Caps took another icing with 2:56 left. At 17;56, Schenn blasted Bäckström with a big check behind the Washington net.

Shots in the third period were 10-8 Caps; 31-28 Flyers after regulation. The Flyers had a hard-earned point on the bank before play moved to three-on-three overtime.

Couturier, Simmonds and Streit started OT against, Kuznetsov, Oshie and Alzner. At the 32-second mark, Simmonds was called for tripping Kuznetsov at the blueline. The Caps gained a 4-on-3 power play.

Ovechkin missed the net with a rocket of a one-timer from the center point. Bäckström hit the post. Mason made a save on Niskanen. Gudas blocked a shot out of play, and the Caps called timeout. With 14 seconds left, Bellemare blocked an Oshie shot out of play. Couturier won the draw cleanly and the Flyers cleared the zone.

After the penalty expired, the Caps went right back to the power play as Couturier received a goaltender interference penalty -- no worse than the Beagle collision with Mason -- but it was canceled out by a Holtby roughing penalty. Justin Williams served the penalty at 1:56.

The Giroux trio of the captain, Gostisbehere and Voracek dangled around the perimeter for over 30 second and finally Giroux set up Gostisbehere in the left slot. Holtby made the save for a stoppage with 1:06 left. The Flyers called their timeout.

Beagle went around Voracek and took the puck hard to the net. Mason made a huge save.

Bellemare ran out of time chasing down a loose puck in the neutral zone and going in to the offensive zone. Overtime shots were 3-2 Flyers; 34-30 Flyers for the game.

The Flyers elected to let Washington shoot first.

In the first round, Oshie shot first and moved in very slowly. Mason denied him on the backhand. In the bottom of the first, Cousins scored as he slid a backhander through the five hole.

In round two, Kuznetsov also moved in slowly was spectacularly robbed by Mason's glove as the shooter moved all the way past the left post and tried to flipped the puck over the downed goalie. The game ended as Gagner used a quick shot release to surprise Holtby. It worked, as the puck found the five hole and the Flyers got a critical bonus point.

If the season ended today, the Flyers would play Washington in the first round. While the Capitals would be the favorites, all but one game of the season series (Washington went 2-0-2 and the Flyers were 2-2-0) was up-for-grabs right until the end.

"Oh man, it'd be a hell of a series. A lot of fun to be a part of that game," Mason said when asked about how he'd feel about a series against the Capitals coming to fruition.

With the shootout win, the Flyers moved two points ahead of the Detroit Red Wings (89 to 87) in the Eastern Conference Wildcard chance. Philly also moved one point ahead of the Boston Bruins. As the third-place team in the Northeast Division, Boston retains its automatic playoff spot. However, the Flyers still further increased their chances of a playoff spot because, if Boston falls out of third place, they also fall behind the Flyers. The Bruins also have a head-to-head game remaining with the Red Wings (as do the Flyers). A regulation decision in that game would benefit the Flyers' position against whichever side loses.

The Flyers also moved back to within two points of the New York Islanders for the higher wild card position in the East. The two teams play each other in Brooklyn on April 10; the final day of the regular season. The Islanders hold one game in hand on the Flyers.

In the meantime, Philadelphia still has one game in hand apiece against the Red Wings and Bruins. The extra game will ultimately be the final night meeting with the Islanders. All three among the Red Wings, Bruins and Islanders hold a 36-35 regulation/overtime win (ROW) tiebreaker advantage over Philly in the event of a tie in points at the end of the season. That was the lone area where the Flyers did not gain ground on Wednesday but the team gladly took the two points any which way it could.

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