"I don't know what I should do or what I'm doing wrong, but every time something bad happens, I'm on the ice," said Timonen, who was minus-3 for the second straight night and is minus-10 for the season. "It's been the theme of the year for me."

On Semin's goal, Timonen said, "There's nothing I could do better, except maybe play higher. I've never been through this. There's nothing you can do except go out there, work hard, and hope things turn around. But it's been really hard and frustrating."

Alex Ovechkin's second goal of the night, an empty-netter, closed the scoring. Ovechkin has 18 goals in 18 regular-season games against the Flyers.

The Flyers, who blew a 2-0 lead - just as they did in an Oct. 10 to Anaheim - fired a season-high 43 shots at Jose Theodore.

"I'm happy with the effort, but we can't be satisfied with what's going on," coach John Stevens said. "We're not scoring goals right now. We're getting a lot of chances, but we have to do more. . . . We have to start winning these tight games."

The Flyers had taken a 2-0 lead on second-period power-play goals by Scott Hartnell and Braydon Coburn. They also had momentum from killing a five-on-three Washington power play that lasted for 1:41 in the second period.

"I thought [Emery] made some really key saves on that power play and gave us a chance to win on the road," Stevens said, "but for whatever reason, we're having problems getting pucks into the net."

The Flyers continued an early-season habit of allowing goals late in a period. Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom (four points) scored in the final 3:52 of the second period to create a 2-2 tie.

Backstrom's goal, on the power play, went through Emery's legs with 1:48 left in the middle period. It was the fourth goal the Flyers had surrendered in the last two minutes of a period this year.

Theodore made a pad save on Darroll Powe's penalty shot with 13:13 remaining, protecting a 3-2 lead. That made the Flyers 18 for 42 in regular-season penalty shots in the franchise's history.

Coincidentally, the Flyers' last penalty-shot goal was scored by Powe, who connected April 4 in Ottawa.

Jeff Carter had a game-high six shots but failed to score for the sixth straight game - his longest drought in two seasons. He went five games without scoring twice last season, when he finished with 46 goals.

With the Flyers' fathers in the crowd as part of a bonding trip with their sons, the team had 20 shots in the final period but couldn't put one past Theodore.

The Flyers finished 2 for 5 on the power play, but they were outscored, 2-0, at even strength. For the season, they have been outscored, 18-17, in five-on-five situations.

"Five-on-five is the biggest concern for me," Timonen said.

"It's no secret where a lot of goals are scored in this league - around the net," defenseman Chris Pronger said. "We've got to get a little dirtier, and we as defensemen have got to do a better job of getting pucks through to the net."

Said Timonen: "When you're up 2-0, you should at least get the point."