Philadelphia’s Wade Allison passes the puck past Washington center Lars Eller during their game Friday in Washington. Alex Brandon/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Rookie Wade Allison scored twice, Brian Elliott made 28 saves and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Capitals 4-2 on Friday night to prevent Washington from reclaiming first place in the East Division.
The Capitals trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points with two games left on their regular-season schedule. A Penguins victory in their regular-season finale against last-place Buffalo on Saturday and another Washington loss to Philadelphia hours later would clinch the division for Pittsburgh.
Long since eliminated from playoff contention, the Flyers nevertheless outplayed the Capitals, who were again without captain Alex Ovechkin and defenseman Justin Schultz because of lower-body injuries and top center Evgeny Kuznetsov, who’s on the NHL COVID protocol list. Rookie goaltender Vitek Vanecek allowed three goals on 28 shots in his third consecutive start with Ilya Samsonov also out for protocol reasons.
Daniel Sprong scored his 13th goal of the season and sixth in his past six games mostly in Ovechkin’s usual spot in the lineup. T.J. Oshie added his fourth in the past two games since the death of his father, but the Capitals’ comeback bid from a 3-1 deficit fell short.
RED WINGS 5, BLUE JACKETS 2: Thomas Greiss made 22 saves and Detroit scored three goals in the second period to win in Columbus, Ohio.
Jakub Vrana had a goal and an assist, and Joe Veleno and Danny DeKeyser also scored in the second period for the Red Wings, who are dueling with the Blue Jackets to stay out of the Central Division basement as they play out the final weekend. Detroit leads Columbus by one point in the standings ahead of Saturday’s finale.
Gavin Bayreuther and Nathan Gerbe scored for the Blue Jackets, who have lost 12 of their last 14. Matiss Kivlenieks, seeing his first NHL action this season, had 31 saves.
Greiss, who was the NHL First Star of the Week after back-to-back shutouts last week in regulation, is 6-0-3 since April 4.
STARS 5, LIGHTNING 2: Joe Pavelski had two goals and two assists to help keep Dallas’ postseason hopes alive with a victory in Tampa, Fla.
The win moved Dallas within two points of Nashville heading into the final weekend of the regular season. The Stars play Chicago on Sunday and Monday, while the Predators host Carolina, which clinched its first division title since 2006 on Friday with Tampa Bay’s loss, on Saturday and Monday.
Roope Hintz added a goal and two assists for Dallas, which ended a five-game winless streak. Joel Kiviranta and Jamie Oleksiak also scored, and Anton Khudobin made 26 saves.
WILD 4, DUCKS 3: Kirill Kaprizov scored 27 seconds into overtime to send Minnesota past visiting Anaheim.
NOTES
CANUCKS: Vancouver forward Zack MacEwen was suspended for one game without pay by the NHL for kneeing Edmonton Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse.
The incident came midway through the second period Thursday night in the Canucks’ 6-3 victory in Edmonton.
The suspension will cost MacEwen $7,112.
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