Flyers close out Capitals

WASHINGTON -- The Philadelphia Flyers finally figured out how to put away the Washington Capitals.

Joffrey Lupul netted a rebound during a power play 6:06 into overtime in Game 7 to lift Philadelphia past Alex Ovechkin and Washington 3-2 on Tuesday night in their Eastern Conference first-round series.

The Flyers led the best-of-seven series 3-1 before allowing the Capitals to win two games and pull even.

"For some reason, we don't like to do it the easy way," Flyers defenseman Braydon Coburn said. "We like to grind it out and do it the hard way. But it's a great feeling to get this series won."

Lupul found space in front of the net to get a backhander past Cristobal Huet after Washington's goalie had deflected Kimmo Timonen's shot.

"You're on a power play, the puck goes to the net, you end up banging it in, and 20 guys are ramming you into the boards," Lupul said about the celebration after his first playoff goal. "I'm still catching my breath right now. I'm sure it'll sink in here in the next couple of hours."

There were nine seconds left in the Flyers' man advantage after defenseman Tom Poti was sent off for tripping -- the first penalty since the second period in a rough-and-tumble game that suited Philadelphia's style.

"To have the referee decide the series like that, with two teams battling like that, is tough to swallow. I definitely didn't think it was a penalty," Poti said.

He then made reference to Philadelphia's second goal, when a Capitals defenseman was knocked into Huet by an opponent, and said: "It's tough to beat the officials as well as the Flyers."

Philadelphia will play the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the conference semifinals. Game 1 is Thursday at Montreal.