PHILADELPHIA _ If the Flyers meet Washington in the Eastern Conference playoffs, they have reason for optimism.
They made an emphatic statement by winning three of the four regular-season games against the Capitals, including Sunday's impressive 6-3 victory at the Wells Fargo Center.
Wayne Simmonds scored two goals and Oskar Lindblom tallied for the first time in his NHL career as the Flyers won their second straight and snapped the Capitals' four-game winning streak.
With the victory, the third-place Flyers, who were playing on back-to-back nights, moved to within four points of first-place Washington in the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers have nine games left, one fewer than the Caps.
"Of course it feels good," said Lindblom after converting a pass from Jake Voracek. "It was good timing in the game, too, to get the 2-1 lead. When I saw Jake with the puck and I had an open spot, I knew the puck was coming to me and I was going to shoot it. Good feeling."
Lindblom and Ivan Provorov scored late in the second period to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead.
From the high slot, Lindblom beat Philipp Grubauer high to the left corner of the net for his first NHL goal in 14 games, putting the Flyers ahead, 2-1, with 1:41 left in the period.
"It was huge," Shayne Gostisbehere said. "The kid is getting confidence and you can really tell. He's really going and Jake has been really building him up there."
Lindblom had an assist in Saturday's win in Carolina, and he has played a strong two-way game since being recalled from the Phantoms but had been snake-bitten.
Provorov scored with 18.3 seconds left in the second to make it 3-1, firing a shot that deflected into the net off the shin of Caps defenseman Christian Djoos.
Simmonds deflected Robert Hagg's drive into the net for his 22nd goal, giving the Flyers a 4-1 lead with 18:23 left in regulation. The Caps cut it to 4-2 on Chandler Stephenson's goal with 9:29 to go after a misplay by Radko Gudas.
But Simmonds secured the verdict, scoring from the high slot after a Capitals turnover with 5:33 remaining, increasing the lead to 5-2.
Simmonds had the 31st multiple-goal game of his career _ and his first since he scored a hat trick in the season opener in San Jose.
In their four meetings this season, the Flyers outscored the Capitals, 19-11.
Earlier, Washington had tied the score at 1 as Alex Ovechkin redirected Travis Boyd's backhand pass past Mrzek to with 4:52 left in the second. Ovechkin got behind Provorov and scored his league-high 43rd goal in 601st of his Hall-of-Fame career. It was just his second goal in the last eight games against the Flyers.
The Flyers had taken a 1-0 lead as Claude Giroux cleanly won a faceoff and sent the puck to Gostisbehere, who scored on a one-timer from the point with 17:45 left in the second period. With the assist, Giroux tied Eric Lindros for fifth place in franchise history with 659 points.
It was Gostisbehere's 12th goal and second in the last three games _ after a 19-game goal-less drought.
The goal was scored about 15 seconds after Petr Mrazek made a great save on Jakub Jerabek's slot drive.
With the Flyers holding a 1-0 lead, both goalies took turns making quality saves on point-blank shots. Grubauer robbed Sean Couturier (goal-less in his last 15 games) after he took a sweet two-on-one feed from Andrew MacDonald.
Mrazek has been shaky lately, but he was aggressive and in control in the opening period, stopping all eight Washington shots. He made his best first-period save when he denied Nicklas Backstrom in front after an odd-man rush with 13:34 left in the stanza.
