Capitals 5, Flyers 4 (SO)
Alexander Semin scored the clinching goal in the shootout after Marcus Johansson put home the tying tally with 3:19 left in regulation as the visiting Washington Capitals edged the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-4, on Tuesday.
Mike Knuble recorded a goal and two assists and Nicklas Backstrom added a tally and a helper for the Capitals, who were playing without star Alexander Ovechkin due to an undisclosed injury.
Washington (43-21-10), which announced Monday that Ovechkin would miss the next 7-10 days, moved within one point of Philadelphia (44-19-9) for first place in the Eastern Conference with a seesaw win.
Danny Briere put Philadelphia on top, 4-3, when he tipped in Kimmo Timonen’s shot at the 14:15 mark of the third period. But the Capitals bounced back, tying it on Johansson’s 12th goal just over two minutes later.
Washington jumped out to a quick lead with a pair of goals in the first period as Backstrom and Knuble found the back of the net. Washington made it 3-0 on Dennis Wideman’s power-play goal early in the second before Philadelphia removed Sergei Bobrovsky from goal in favor of Brian Boucher.
The Flyers came all the way back, getting second-period goals from Kris Versteeg and Claude Giroux and tying it on Andreas Nodl's 11th tally at the 9:58 mark of the third period.