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Flyers edge Capitals and continue playoff push

After losing two straight home games to NHL lightweights, the Flyers completed a weekend sweep of league powers Sunday, defeating the Washington Capitals, 3-2, at the Wells Fargo Center and keeping pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Claude Giroux celebrates his first-period power  play goal
with teammates Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek.  (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Claude Giroux celebrates his first-period power play goal with teammates Brayden Schenn, Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more(Yong Kim / Staff Photographer)

After losing two straight home games to NHL lightweights, the Flyers completed a weekend sweep of league powers Sunday, defeating the Washington Capitals, 3-2, at the Wells Fargo Center and keeping pace in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Defenseman Michael Del Zotto broke a 2-2 tie with 4 minutes, 13 seconds left, lifting the Flyers to the victory and giving them points in 12 of their last 13 games. The Flyers remained four points behind Boston, a surprise winner in Chicago on Sunday, for the last playoff spot.

The Flyers were 13 points behind on Jan. 16.

"We're back in the race . . . and we have to be pretty happy with how we're playing right now. We're playing as a team," center Claude Giroux said after he broke out of a slump with a goal and an assist. "We have to keep going."

"We were written off, but these guys won't quit," said Ed Snider, chairman of the Flyers' parent company, Comcast-Spectacor. "The guys have stuck together. They believed in themselves all year."

Snider admitted there were times when he had doubts.

"In my mind, I was almost writing them off, too," he said of the team's playoff chances five weeks ago.

Del Zotto, pinching in on the left side, took a slick cross-ice pass from Jake Voracek and blasted a high left-circle shot past Braden Holtby for his seventh goal - and fifth in the last 14 games.

"I was two-on-two with [Pierre-Edouard] Bellemare and it was kind of the end of a shift," said Voracek, who spent time on both the second and fourth lines. "I didn't see anything going on."

Voracek waited patiently, kept possession near the right wall, and fed a streaking Del Zotto on the left side.

"He's one of the best at it when he sees the open ice - he just jumps right in," Voracek said. "It makes it easier for the forward; it gives you that option."

Voracek, who now has a career-high 63 points, Giroux, and defenseman Mark Streit each had two points for the Flyers, who stunned the NHL's top team, Nashville, by scoring a 3-2 shootout win Saturday.

The Flyers killed a penalty with 57.8 seconds left, and their penalty kill was 5 for 5.

Defenseman Braydon Coburn did an admirable job shadowing Alex Ovechkin, and he blocked the star winger's shot late in the game to help preserve the win. Surprise starter Rob Zepp, who also played Saturday, made 21 saves to raise his record to 5-1.

Trailing by 2-0, the Caps got goals from Tom Wilson and Joel Ward to tie the score in the second period.

Ward knotted the score by firing a wild turnaround shot of a rolling puck in the left circle, blasting it over Zepp's right shoulder with 4:38 left in the period. The shot appeared to tick off Zac Rinaldo's stick and beat Zepp up high and to the short side.

The Capitals had gotten to within 2-1 by capitalizing on a Brayden Schenn turnover that led to Wilson's one-timer from out front with 14:37 to go in the second.

Earlier, Giroux scored his first goal in 12 games, whipping a shot from the top of the left circle that went through defenseman John Carlson's legs and past Holtby, who was screened by Wayne Simmonds while the Flyers were on a power play with 15:21 left in the first period.

Simmonds made it 2-0 with 18:26 remaining in the second period, batting a rebound out of the air during another power play. It was Simmonds' 13th power-play goal, third in the NHL.

"We're finding ways to win games," Giroux said after his team went 2 for 4 on the power play. "We gave away a lot of points in the start of the year."

The Flyers play Tuesday in Carolina and Thursday in Toronto, facing two teams out of the playoff hunt.

Then again, the Flyers have played down (or up) to their completion this season. Witness their losses last week to lowly Columbus and lowlier Buffalo.

"We have to go on the road and keep this thing going," said Coburn, who played well in both weekend wins. "We got ourselves right in the mix now."