In Washington, DC, the Capitals fell behind 2-0 after the first 20 minutes of play on Friday night.
The Flyers seemingly went off the clock as the Caps replied with five unanswered goals in a 5-2 win.
Charlie Lindgren made 24 saves in the win.
“We didn’t want to put too much pressure on ourselves, but at the same time it did feel like kind of a must-win game,” Lindgren said. “It’s a big-time character win. Just feels amazing and obviously [we’ve] got to park it. We’re still trying to climb up the standings here and we’ve got a big game on Sunday [against the Arizona Coyotes] as well.”
The Capitals moved to 28-22-9, and clawed their way to within four points of the Flyers for the third spot in the Metropolitan Division.
“We just were nowhere near where we needed to be and what we’re capable of being at,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “And it was easy stuff. We showed a few things that we had talked about structurally that were easy fixes, but we just weren’t skating. We just did not have the pace, the speed. We couldn’t win a loose puck. We couldn’t get through the neutral zone.”
In the opening stanza, Bobby Brink staked the Flyers to a 1-0 lead at 1:52, scoring off an odd man rush.
Owen Tippett pushed the lead to 2-0 with a power play strike at 18:23. His went through traffic in the low slot.
“I’m just trying to simplify things and when chances are there kind of jump on them and take them,” Tippett said.
The Flyers dropped to 31-23-7.
“Not enough from our offensive guys,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “I know we give up five goals, but it’s not enough from our offensive guys. We’ve got to get some guys untracked.”
In the middle frame, Alex Ovechkin trimmed the deficit to 2-1 with a marker at 4:34, scoring off a shot from the left circle.
“It was such a big goal,” Lindgren said. “I mean that obviously got us going, got a lot of momentum off that. That’s a big-time player scoring a big-time goal and that’s why he’s our leader. I think we certainly followed his lead after that.”
The Caps drew even at 2-2 with a strike by Sonny Milano midway through the period.
Washington took a 3-2 lead in the second on John Carlson‘s gave at 15:45, scoring off a wraparound.
“In the first period, we didn’t play at all, didn’t play our game,” Ovechkin said. “I think they outchanced us, outhit us and win all the battles. I think (in the second period) we start the right way, we play simple, we set the tone right away and we see the result.”
In the third, Anthony Mantha stretched the advantage to 4-2 with a power play goal at 6:04, scoring off a snipe from the slot.
Dylan Strome sealed the win with a goal at 15:38 for the 5-2 final count on the scoreboard. 
Samuel Ersson made 16 saves in the loss.
“Well, I think they get some momentum off their face-off goal,” Tortorella said. “I think they start checking a little bit better. After the first period, the second and third periods I just don’t think we developed a whole bunch offensively.”
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