WASHINGTON — It was almost an all too familiar sight of late.
The Flyers battle for 58 minutes and even lead a couple of times.
But one bad bounce in the final two minutes results in an opponent scoring and a loss.
That was the script during the Flyers' three-game losing streak entering Wednesday night.
And it almost happened again.
With the scored tied 3-3 with 2:02 left in regulation, Matt Read was whistled for hooking Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov and sending a lethal Washington power play to work.
Yet, the Flyers' penalty kill stood tall, killed it off and sent the game to overtime.
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"Our penalty kill, they stepped up big time," right winger Jakub Voracek said. "They gave us a chance to get that second point, even the one point.
"I'm glad we did it because like I said, to lose four in a row before the break wouldn't have been good."
Thirty-eight seconds into OT, Voracek sent the Flyers into the All-Star break with a 4-3 win over the NHL-best Capitals with his second goal of the game.
Still, the penalty kill in the final two minutes of the third period proved to be the difference-maker in a game filled with momentum shifts.
This was a time where many teams would be fragile given the same circumstances.
Coming off three straight losses with two of them coming in the final two minutes, it couldn't have been easy to keep that from trickling into the back of their minds.
The feeling of, "Here we go again." A late stick infraction, another bad break.
Add in the Alex Ovechkin factor as well as the Capitals' NHL-best PP, the game had a fourth-straight loss written all over it. But the Flyers found a way to kill the penalty.
And they did so without their best penalty killer, Sean Couturier, who missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury.
"All guys, everybody," Voracek said. "(Nick) Schultz blocking shots. It takes a lot of balls to do that. A couple of good clears. Everybody stepped up."
The kill featured back-to-back blocked shots from Nick Schultz on Ovechkin, a Jason Chimera shot blocked by Michael Del Zotto and a Michael Neuvirth stop on Ovechkin.
As expected, the Capitals ran the power play through Ovechkin, who entered Wednesday with 11 of his 28 goals coming on the man advantage this season.
In crunch time Wednesday, the Flyers put their previous three games behind them.
"It's hard," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "From my standpoint, I wanted the guys to come in with confidence the way we did the second and third period against Boston.
"I thought we did that. It's a credit to the guys in here. They did a good job of carrying that in and winning in a tough building."
The Flyers played a disciplined game against the Capitals, taking just two penalties and killing both. It proved to be critical, especially for a struggling PK unit.
All season long, the Flyers' PK has ranked near the bottom of the league. Before Wednesday's game, it ranked 26th in the NHL at 77.7 percent.
During their three-game skid, the Flyers were 4 for 11 on the PK.
Against Pittsburgh and Boston, they surrendered two power-play goals in each game.
"When you look at the last three games that we played before," Voracek said, "I mean, we could have got five, six points out of that and nobody would be surprised.
"We got scored on in the last minute of the games twice. In Pittsburgh, we were up 2-0. I'm glad we closed it out today. It's a huge, huge game by our penalty kill."
At the break, the Flyers have 50 points and are two points out of the second wild-card spot. Those three straight losses saw the Flyers go from two points out to seven.
Heading into the break losing four straight would have spelled doom. February is a busy month with 15 games in 29 days, so there's still time left. But they wanted to go into the break on a high note and they did.
"Huge," Voracek said. "You know, I think over the last two, two and a half months, I think we're playing good hockey. Last three games, we found a way to lose the games.
"We have to make sure that we keep it in the same line, don't get too high, don't get too low and try to make the playoffs."
Back to Lehigh Valley
The Flyers on Thursday morning loaned goalie Jason LaBarbera to the Phantoms.
LaBarbera was called up on emergency conditions Wednesday to backup Neuvirth because Steve Mason missed the game because of a lower-body injury.
Mason is expected to return after the All-Star break.