Determined Capitals rally to push win streak to five

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the Washington Capitals sure had reason to feel down.

They came away from more than 1½ minutes of a 5-on-3 power play with nothing. Then they gave up two goals to the Philadelphia Flyers, who were generally pushing the Capitals around.

Was Washington demoralized? More like determined.

"We got a little bit angry," Nicklas Backstrom said. "It was good for us."

Alexander Semin returned from a two-game absence with a tiebreaking goal and two assists, Jose Theodore stopped Darroll Powe's penalty shot later in the third period, and the Capitals came back to beat the Flyers 4-2 last night.

Ovechkin scored two goals - including an empty-netter in the final minute - to raise his season total to 11, and Backstrom had four points. The Southeast Division leaders rallied from a 2-0 deficit to stretch their winning streak to five games.

After a scoreless opening period,

Scott Hartnell and Braydon Coburn put in power-play goals in the second to put the Flyers ahead.

But, with Theodore en route to 41 saves, the game was tied heading into the third.

"Theo kept us in the game," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said.

About 5½ minutes into the final period, Semin put the hosts ahead to stay with his seventh goal of the season. His wrist shot appeared to deflected off defenseman Kimmo Timonen's knee on its way past goalie Ray Emery.

"I don't know what I should do," Timonen said. "Every time bad breaks happen, I'm on the ice."

Semin sat out Washington's previous two games because he was, as coach Boudreau put it, sick and sore. But Semin looked just fine from the outset against Philadelphia, challenging Emery with a strong shot on his first shift.

The forward would have to wait to score, though, eventually doing so off assists from Backstrom and defenseman Mike Green.

Less than 1½ minutes later, Powe got his chance to tie things up again, but Theodore kicked away the penalty shot. Theodore has stopped 6 of 8 penalty shots he's faced in his career.

"He was really solid," Boudreau said.

After Hartnell's goal 3:06 into the first period made it 1-0, the Flyers killed off that 5-on-3 chance for the Capitals. Shortly thereafter, Washington's Tyler Sloan went into the penalty box, and only 9 seconds into the power play, it was 2-0, thanks to Coburn's goal on a slap shot past a screened Theodore.

Ovechkin pulled Washington within a goal at 16:08 of the second, putting a shot over Emery's shoulder, and Backstrom tied it with less than 2 minutes left in the period on a power play.

Philadelphia couldn't recover and lost its second game in a row.

"We can't be satisfied with what's going on," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "We got to start winning these tight games."

Philadelphia 0 2 0 - 2

Washington 0 2 2 - 4

First Period-None.

Second Period-1, Philadelphia, Hartnell 2 (Richards, C.Giroux), 3:06 (pp). 2, Philadelphia, Coburn 1 (Timonen, van Riemsdyk), 14:29 (pp). 3, Washington, Ovechkin 10 (Backstrom, Schultz), 16:08. 4, Washington, Backstrom 3 (Semin, Aucoin), 18:12 (pp).

Third Period-5, Washington, Semin 7 (Green, Backstrom), 5:24. 6, Washington, Ovechkin 11 (Backstrom, Semin), 19:14 (en).

Missed Penalty Shot-Powe, Phi, 6:47 third.

Shots on Goal-Philadelphia 10-13-20-43. Washington 11-15-10-36.

Power-play opportunities-Philadelphia 2 of 5; Washington 1 of 4.

Goalies-Philadelphia, Emery 5-3-1 (35 shots-32 saves). Washington, Theodore 3-2-2 (43-41).

A-18,277 (18,277). T-2:32.

Referees-Tom Kowal, Dennis LaRue. Linesmen-Lonnie Cameron, Dan Schachte.

RED WINGS 5, CANUCKS 4: Jason Williams scored a power-play goal with 5:03 left in a wild third period, leading the Detroit Red Wings to a victory over the Vancouver Canucks.

Pavel Datsyuk scored his first two goals of the season for Detroit (4-4-2) in a third period that featured six goals and three comebacks.

Tomas Holmstrom had a goal and an assist and Niklas Kronwall also scored as the Red Wings snapped a three-game winless skid.

Christian Ehrhoff and Mathieu Schneider also scored and Roberto Luongo finished with 37 saves for the Canucks (6-6-0).

Avalanche 3, Oilers 0: Craig Anderson stopped 25 shots for his second shutout of the season to lead Colorado.

Wojtek Wolski had two goals and Milan Hejduk also scored as the Avalanche (9-1-2) won their third in a row and fifth of their last six. Colorado also improved to 5-1-2 on the road.

The Oilers (6-5-1) have now lost three in a row.