Early in the third period, a Flyers fan held up a sign directed at the Capitals that read, ‘‘You’ll choke.’’
Not these Capitals, and certainly not against these punchless Flyers.
Nicklas Backstrom scored, Braden Holtby had 26 saves, and Washington defeated Philadelphia, 1-0, on Sunday to win the series 4-2 and advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Capitals will play the Pittsburgh Penguins, setting up a marquee matchup of Alex Ovechkin vs. Sidney Crosby.
‘‘It’s going to be a hard series,’’ Ovechkin said.
Ovechkin had an assist on Backstrom’s second-period goal that easily held against the Flyers.
Riding the momentum of Michal Neuvirth in net, the Flyers won two straight games to force an unlikely trip home. Neuvirth was sensational again, but the Flyers were ultimately doomed by a power play that could not cash in against Holtby. The Flyers wasted nearly two minutes of a 5-on-3 power play in the second period.
‘‘We sacrificed our body 5-on-3,’’ Ovechkin said. ‘‘We paid the price, and we won.’’
The reward: keeping alive the pursuit of the first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.
Islanders 2, Panthers 1 — John Tavares tied it in the final minute of regulation, then got the winner at 10:41 of the second overtime, leading New York past Florida and into the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 1993.
On the game’s final play, Tavares skated in and fired a shot that Panther goaltender Roberto Luongo saved. But the Islander captain gathered his own rebound, swooped behind the net, and stuffed a wraparound in to end the longest home game in team history.
The Islanders will next face the Lightning in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Thomas Greiss finished with 41 saves in the teams’ second straight double-overtime game and the third in the series to go past regulation.
The Islanders won Game 3 at home, 4-3, in the first extra period, and took Game 5 in Florida, 2-1, at 16 minutes of the second overtime.
Jonathan Huberdeau scored late in the first period for Florida’s only goal of the night.
Stars 5, Wild 4 — Jason Spezza scored his fourth goal of the series and added three assists, and Dallas needed every last one of them to hold off Minnesota and wrap up its first-round series in six games.
Jared Spuregon scored two of Minnesota’s four third-period goals, both on the power play, and the Wild came within a fraction of an inch of tying the game with 34 seconds remaining when Nino Niederreiter whacked at a loose puck in the crease.
Freeze-frame replays showed the puck in the net, but officials ruled it was not quite fully across the goal line.
John Klingberg, Patrick Sharp, Jamie Benn, and Alex Goligoski also scored for the Stars, who move on to face the winner of the Chicago-St. Louis series, which is tied at 3.
The Wild’s intensely up-and-down season ended with a fury, metaphorically squeezing months of drama into one final period after waking up from a figurative afternoon nap during the game’s first 40 minutes.
Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin scored 16 seconds apart, pulling the Wild to 4-2 with 15-plus minutes to play.
Dallas got a break when Goligoski’s shot bounced around the goal mouth. Devan Dubnyk didn’t appear to see it, and after Charlie Coyle tried to keep it away from the line, the puck glanced off Dubnyk and went in for a 5-3 lead with 9:32 left.
Pominville slammed in a rebound with 4:47 left, though, setting up the game’s frantic final flurry.
