Returning home after a four-game road trip, the Flyers remained in the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot Monday.
Barely.
Claude Giroux, who was injured late in the previous game, scored after taking a pass from Shayne Gostisbehere with 13.6 seconds left in overtime, lifting the Flyers to a 3-2 win over Winnipeg at the reverberating Wells Fargo Center.
The goal followed a Winnipeg turnover in its own end.
The Flyers are 25-1-2 when taking a lead into the third period.
Gostisbehere nearly won it late in regulation. After making a great move to get free for a shot, his drive bounced off the crossbar with 5 minutes, 38 seconds to go.
Blake Wheeler took a slick pass from Mark Scheifele and beat Steve Mason on a backhander with 17:25 left in regulation, knotting the score at 2-all. Wheeler got behind Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and deposited his 20th goal of the season.
Mason, making his 11th start in the last 12 games, kept the game tied when he stopped Nikolaj Ehlers from point-blank range with 11:31 remaining.
Earlier, Mark Streit and Wayne Simmonds scored on the Flyers’ first two shots of the second period to create a 2-0 lead.
But 88 seconds after Simmonds’ goal, Scheifele scored on a breakaway as he beat Mason to the short side. A turnover by Jake Voracek enabled Scheifele to go in alone and score his 25th goal.
Just 41 seconds into the second period, Streit converted a backdoor pass from Sean Couturier to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
Simmonds then scored from the high slot — his wrist shot caromed off the leg of defenseman Dustin Byfuglien and past goalie Ondrej Pavelec - after taking a pass from Brayden Schenn, who was behind the net.
“I just came off the bench and shot it,” Simmonds said after scoring his 26th goal, tops on the team.
In the opener of a critical three-game homestand, the Flyers dominated the first nine-plus minutes, outshooting the Jets, 7-0.
But Winnipeg, which is at the bottom of the Central Division standings and has been eliminated from playoff contention, regrouped and had several scoring chances of its own in the later stages of the period. With 6:20 to go in the first, Mason denied Scheifele from in close on the Jets’ best opportunity.
The Flyers failed to get a shot in their only power play in the first period. Their first power-play unit has not scored since Feb. 29.
As expected, Giroux was able to play after absorbing a head hit in Saturday’s 2-1 loss in Arizona. Giroux, the Flyers’ captain and leading scorer, went through a concussion test and doctors cleared him.
“I was a little shaken up, but (after) getting the rest, I feel pretty good,” Giroux said after watching Monday’s morning skate at the Wells Fargo Center. “ ... I feel fine. I don’t think there was a question of me playing tonight or not.”
Giroux had an assist on Simmonds’ goal; he had two points in the game and tied Reggie Leach (514 points) for 12th on the all-time franchise list.