Flyers hold back Capitals, 3-1

WASHINGTON - As the Flyers packed their bags and skated out of the District with an improbable victory over the Capitals, one lingering thought was left behind:

What if the Flyers' penalty kill hadn't reeked like a tire at the bottom of the Potomac River all season?

The conversation on the bus yesterday, as the Flyers made their way for a flight to Montreal, may have been a lot more different. It may have even included chatter about the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Fueled by a sterling, 5-for-6 performance on the penalty kill, the Flyers cooled off the Capitals yesterday with a 3-1 win, a rare reprieve for one of the league's worst special-teams units. They entered the game with the NHL's 28th-ranked killing unit (75 percent) and had been dead last at varying points this season.

How good was the Flyers' kill yesterday? The last time the Capitals lost a game in which they had five power plays or more than their opponent was back on Oct. 5, 2006. That was Alex Ovechkin's second season and four coaches ago.

The Flyers started off the matinee with two penalties in the first 6 minutes. Washington didn't register a single shot. In fact, the Flyers tallied more shots shorthanded than the Capitals did with the man advantage.

The Flyers held the Caps to 14 shots overall, the fewest they've allowed since holding New Jersey to 13 on Nov. 2, 2013.

Yes, Washington's only strike of the game came on an Ovechkin power-play blast in the second period. To be sure, Ovechkin was poorly covered - left all alone to Ray Emery's right while multiple players puck-watched.

However, the Flyers did deserve a bit of a pass on the sequence, which followed a five-on-three penalty kill, and Emery entering the game completely cold in place of an injured Steve Mason less than 2 minutes earlier. It was a scrambled mess. Ovechkin's goal was his 15th of the season on the power play, which ties him for the league lead. The Flyers staved off Ovechkin and the Capitals in a much bigger spot with the lead on the line in the third period.

The Flyers' penalty-killing woes have been one of the most inexplicable turns of this bipolar season. Last season, Ian Laperriere's unit was ranked seventh in the NHL. They lost Kimmo Timonen and Adam Hall, but neither one of those losses should make an entire unit collapse.

There has been a stark difference of late - an 18-for-20 run (90 percent) since Jan. 20 - that can be traced back to a personnel change. Craig Berube replaced Matt Read and Sean Couturier on the top unit with Pierre-Eduoard Bellemare and Chris VandeVelde.

"Up ice, we're getting a lot more pressure," Berube explained. "Our guys' skating deters their breakouts. We're not letting the other team set up. We did a great job on faceoffs, winning it and coming up the weak side to get the puck down the ice. Little things like that are what make a good penalty kill over the year, when you're doing all those things."

VandeVelde, who has also contributed offensively with five goals in his last eight games, said he and Bellemare read well off each other because they're on the same line.

"We're both pretty good skaters, so we just try to pressure them as much as possible," VandeVelde said. "Coach gained trust in us and we've been working hard."

Washington entered the afternoon fifth in the league in home power-play goals (21) and 10-for-39 (25.6 percent) with the advantage over their last 13 games at the Verizon Center, in which they'd earned at least a point 12 times.

The Flyers halted Washington's three-game winning streak with a unit led by four players who weren't even mainstays on the roster last season: Michael Del Zotto, Nick Schultz, VandeVelde and Bellemare.

"We were last in the league. We're still kind of toward the bottom," VandeVelde said. "It's a big hole to dig out, just like where we are in the standings. It's a big part of the reason where we're at."

This recent stretch just makes you wonder where exactly the Flyers would be if they had gotten their act together earlier this season. They have allowed at least one power-play goal in 32 of 53 games this year. Because of that, management will have a lot of time to dissect and discover just how much it cost them.

"I think what's bothersome is our penalty kill has been around here for a lot of years," Berube said. "We kept it the same, even though there is a few new personnel. It's just cost us this year, for sure."

With Boston's 3-1 loss to Montreal, the Flyers are now nine points back of the final playoff spot . . . On the penalty disparity, with the Flyers not receiving a single full power play: "It's a little unusual the penalties were 6-1," Craig Berube said . . . The Flyers have points in six consecutive games (5-0-1) . . . Wayne Simmonds beat Braden Holtby off the rush in the third period for his team-leading fifth game-winning goal . . . Claude Giroux (55.9 percent) is fourth in the NHL among those with 1,000 draws.

T | @frank_seravalli