Flyers climb into playoff spot with 2-1 overtime win over Capitals

WASHINGTON — The surging Flyers moved into a playoff spot Sunday afternoon for the first time since Nov. 10.

Twenty-seven seconds into overtime, Travis Konecny scored from the high slot after making a slick move around a defender, lifting the Flyers to a 2-1 win over powerful Washington at Capital One Arena.

Konecny’s shot appeared to deflect off the Capitals’ T.J. Oshie, sending the Flyers to their seventh win in their last eight games.

The Flyers were nine points out of a playoff spot when they lost their 10th straight on Dec. 2. Since then, they are 15-5-1.

The Flyers, playing their second game in as many days, looked fatigued in the early stages of the third period, but gained some momentum after T.J. Oshie pulled down Scott Laughton to give the visitors a power play with 11:40 left in regulation.

Washington goalie Braden Holtby made a pair of keys saves, however, to make the Flyers 0 for their last 12 on the power play, including 0 for 3 on Sunday.

Brian Elliott, Holtby’s counterpart, was just as effective. He made critical saves on Nicklas Backstrom and Dmitry Orlov early in the third, and the Flyers killed a tripping penalty to Michael Raffl late in regulation.

With less than three minutes to go in the third, Elliott robbed Jay Beagle after he redirected Matt Niskanen’s point shot, keeping the game tied at 1-1.

Alex Ovechkin, atoning for a defensive mistake earlier in the period, scored on a power-play one timer from the top of the left circle with 15.8 seconds left in the second, knotting the score at 1-1. With Claude Giroux in the penalty box for slashing, Ovechkin shook free from Jori Lehtera and scored his league-leading 29th goal of the season.

With 13:38 remaining in the second, Raffl, left alone by Ovechkin in the left circle, scored his ninth goal to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Val Filppula set up the goal with a perfect feed from behind the net, and Raffl whipped a shot that caromed off Holtby’s pad and beat him to the short side.

Raffl has nine goals in his last 26 games – after not scoring in his first 21 contests. He has scored all of his goals since being moved up from the fourth line.

A few minutes after Raffl scored, Ovechkin made a diving play to break up and two-on-one Flyers chance.

Elliott returned to the Flyers’ lineup after not playing in consecutive games for the first time since Nov. 2-4.

It looked like the rest did him some good.

Elliott was the game’s best player in a scoreless first period as he made 10 saves, including three difficult point-blank stops.

With a little over nine minutes left in the first period, Washington had a golden scoring chance. Two of them, actually.

Ovechkin stripped the puck from defenseman Ivan Provorov and went on a two-on-one with Evgeny Kuznetsov, the league’s top two goal scorers entering the game. But Elliott stopped Ovechkin and then denied Kuznetsov on the rebound.

With a little under a minute left in the first, Elliott did the splits to stop Ovechkin, who was alone in front.

The first period also included a hard, clean check by Provorov, who sent Tom Wilson to the ice early in the stanza.

Elliott robbed Backstrom from in front with a little over a minute left in the second period. A few seconds later, the Caps went on a power play and Ovechkin scored the equalizer.

It was the teams’ first meeting since Oct. 14, when the Flyers played their home opener and routed the Capitals, 8-2, as Giroux had four points and Sean Couturier and Shayne Gostisbehere each had three points. In that win, Giroux, Couturier, and Laughton each scored a pair of goals.