Capitals 6, Flyers 1

Wayne Simmonds raised his hand toward the crowd and pleaded with fans to stop hurling colorful bracelets on the ice.

The Flyers PA announcer urged fans to “show some class” during the first wave of band tossing.

The Philly fans refused to listen and pelted the ice with the giveaways at seemingly the same rapid rate Washington was scoring goals.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice, Braden Holtby had 31 saves and Washington moved one game closer to a sweep in its first-round playoff series with a win over Philadelphia on Monday night.

The Capitals lead a series 3-0 for the first time in franchise history. Game 4 is Wednesday night in Philadelphia.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us to come back home with the win and see what’s going to happen and who’s going to be next,” Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin snapped a tie game with his 38th career postseason goal and Holtby made the lead stand with his third straight sensational effort in the series. The Capitals scored five power-play goals, including four in a third period marked by the behavior of Philadelphia’s disgruntled home fans.

The Flyers lost in their first home game since founder Ed Snider’s death last week. Michael Raffl scored 57 seconds into the game and sent a crowd already rocking after an emotional pregame tribute into a frenzy.

But passion alone wasn’t enough to fuel the Flyers.

Philadelphia fans showed the wrong kind of spirit late in the game when they tossed wristbands used as part of a pregame lights show on the ice as Washington turned this one into a rout.

Flyers public address announcer Lou Nolan scolded fans and warned the Flyers would be hit with a penalty if they kept littering the ice with bracelets and other garbage.

Sure enough, the wristbands kept coming, and the Flyers were whistled for a bench minor for delay of game. Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov was even smacked by a flying bracelet sitting in the penalty box. Nolan said, “way to go,” and the fans cheered as if they were proud of the penalty.

“I know they’re upset in that situation but that can’t happen,” Simmonds said.

The Flyers dedicated their postseason run to Snider, who died last week after a two-year battle with cancer.

The Flyers hanged a banner outside the arena with Snider’s picture and the caption “A Flyer Forever.” His silhouette was inside the Flyers logo for the customary playoff T-shirt giveaway, and some fans left flowers and cards at a makeshift memorial next to the team flag.

“EMS” — initials for Edward Malcolm Snider — were painted on the ice behind each net.

Lauren Hart, the team’s longtime anthem singer, sang “God Bless America” with Snider’s name and “67” on the back of her team jersey. The Flyers’ first season was 1967-68. Hart’s eyes watered and her hands were shaking throughout her performance.

Raffl knocked in the first shot of the game off Brandon Manning’s attempt from the point and 19,678 fans went wild.

The Flyers had motivation, home ice and a bit of history on their side — Washington had been 0-7 in Game 3s of best-of-seven playoff series when leading 2-0.

But this season’s Capitals had the best record in the NHL and thoroughly outplayed the Flyers in the first two games. Once the crowd and the Flyers settled down, the Capitals got going and looked every bit as dominant as they had all season.

“They had a special moment, a tough moment, for them, and we tried to handle it,” Ovechkin said. “I think we managed it.”

Marcus Johansson tied the game at 1-all in the first, beating a beleaguered Steve Mason on the power play for his first career postseason goal. Mason was back in net following his Game 2 gaffe that has been replayed on an endless loop in Philly — Jason Chimera’s 101-foot tip-in on a play that would have been icing had it not gone on net.

Mason had a pair of easy goals scored against him that hushed the Philly crowd.

Ovechkin bounced over the boards and snapped a long-distance wrist shot from above the circle past Mason.

Mason was befuddled again in the third. Justin Williams’ shot off the boards settled near Mason, who pawed at the puck and it trickled away. Evgeny Kuznetsov pounced and pounded in the goal for a 3-1 lead on just 18 shots. Mason had 21 saves.

John Carlson, Ovechkin and Jay Beagle made it 6-1 with power-play goals in the third. The Capitals have eight in the series.

The Flyers are 0 for 13 in the series.

Claude Giroux, who led the Flyers with 67 points, has none this series and looked lost against Washington.

“There’s a reason why they dominated all year,” Giroux said.

Wild 5, Stars 3

Given a pair of quick goals by Patrick Sharp, Dallas pushed the cruise-control button.

Jason Pominville and Minnesota raced past it and surged back into the series.

Pominville scored twice and had an assist for the Wild, and Minnesota roared back from an early two-goal deficit for a victory that sliced the Stars' advantage in the Western Conference quarterfinals to 2-1.

"That was a nice way to respond," said Pominville, who scored with 47 seconds left in the second period to give the Wild their first postseason lead in seven games, a span of nearly 400 minutes, and added an empty-netter in the closing minutes.

Chris Porter put the Wild on the board in the final minute of the first period for their first even-strength goal of the series. Erik Haula added a goal and an assist, Mikko Koivu scored on a power play in the third period and the Wild stopped a seven-game losing streak that started on March 31.

"We threw the kitchen sink at them," Haula said.

Game 4 is in Minnesota on Wednesday night, and Game 5 will be back in Dallas on Friday night.

"It could be a heck of a series. The parity in this league is incredible, and if you don't play well you're not going to win," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.

Sharp scored 26 seconds into the game and again less than 4 minutes later for the Stars, but the Wild controlled the action after that and finished with a 25-17 shots-on-goal advantage.

The Stars went nearly 50 minutes without scoring until the puck took a pinball-like path to the net off Colton Sceviour with 6:15 remaining to cut the lead to 4-3.

"They played with a lot of speed and scored some timely goals," Sharp said. "You could tell that they fed off the energy of their fans. It was a fun game to be a part of, so we'll take what we can as far as positives from this game."

Sharp was uncovered in the slot when he converted a midair tip of Alex Goligoski's shot into a crowd-silencing score, with many of the customers not yet settled in their seats. The quiet hung in the arena air when Sharp, the 14-year veteran in his first season with the Stars, turned a breakaway into a 2-0 lead with his low shot that slipped under goalie Devan Dubnyk's glove.

In 18 career postseason games against Minnesota, Sharp has nine goals and eight assists. The Wild needed a few minutes to recover, but by the second half of the first period they were in clear control.

Porter muscled his stick in front of Goligoski's to redirect a shot by Haula and give Minnesota a critical goal with 50 seconds left before the first intermission.

Interim coach John Torchetti put journeymen forwards Kurtis Gabriel and Zac Dalpe on the fourth line and scratched Ryan Carter and Jarret Stoll, the only players on the roster who've won a Stanley Cup. Torchetti has been calling for more crashing the net, and the Wild obliged.

Haula tipped in Pominville's shot from the boards behind the circle in the second period to tie the game. Then just before the second intermission, Pominville charged toward the crease to chip in the rebound of Nino Niederreiter's shot during a 4-on-4 created by dual penalties.

"That should give us a lot of confidence going forward," Dubnyk said. "If we play like that, we have a real good shot."

As it was down the stretch of the regular season, the Niederreiter-Haula-Pominville line was the catalyst on both ends of the ice for the Wild, helping keep Stars leading scorer Jamie Benn in check while producing a total of seven points on the night.

"We just made too many mistakes," Benn said.

Kings 2, Sharks 1 (OT)

Getting down in a series seems to bring out the best of Los Angeles. Especially when it’s playing San Jose.

Tanner Pearson scored 3:47 into overtime and the Kings bounced back from a pair of series-opening losses at home to beat the Sharks in Game 3 in the first round.

"It's a confident group when our backs are against the wall," Pearson said. "We're still there and we've got to fight back to even up the series."

Anze Kopitar added a power-play goal, Jonathan Quick made 29 saves and Los Angeles killed two third-period penalties to cut San Jose's lead in the series to 2-1. The Kings rallied from a 3-0 series deficit to beat the Sharks in the first round two years ago on the way to their second Stanley Cup title.

"You know they're thinking a little bit about it now, so we're right where we want to be," said defenseman Drew Doughty, who played 35:01 of the game.

Game 4 is Wednesday night in San Jose.

Joe Thornton scored 30 seconds into the game for the Sharks, but San Jose couldn't get anything else by Quick as their regular-season pattern of road dominance and home struggles extended to the playoffs. The Sharks led the NHL with 28 road wins in the regular season and added two to start this series. But San Jose has lost 24 of 42 home games for the worst record on home ice of any playoff team.

"It's the first team to four," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "I couldn't care less where we win the game. We played well enough to win the game tonight. We outshot them, outchanced them. We didn't win."

Martin Jones made 22 saves but couldn't stop Pearson.

Dustin Brown laid a big hit on Brenden Dillon in the neutral zone to get the puck to Pearson at the blue line. Pearson skated in on a 2-on-1 with Vincent Lecavalier and decided to shoot for the winner.

"I just didn't want to risk forcing a pass across and turning it over," Pearson said. "So I just wanted to get it on net."

After the teams traded goals in the first, it was a tense contest with neither side wanting to give up any quality chances. The best opportunities came on the power play, with Los Angeles generating numerous chances on one opportunity late in the second period without scoring.

The Kings then survived a penalty kill midway through the third after Milan Lucic was called for slashing Justin Braun well behind the play. The Sharks kept the puck in the offensive zone for almost the entire 2-minute penalty with great puck movement. But Quick made a big save against Logan Couture and Jake Muzzin came up with a key blocked shot before Los Angeles' drained penalty killers were able to clear the puck.

"It felt like we were going to get it," Thornton said. "The crowd was into it. They broke a stick. We had a lot of shots. It felt like it was right there. Unfortunately, it just didn't happen."

The Sharks then got a second chance at the power play when Pearson cleared the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty with 5:56 left in the third, but the Kings killed that one as well, setting the stage for overtime.

The sold-out crowd of teal-clad fans was into the game early, with the traditional "Beat L.A.!" chants starting during pregame warmups for the first playoff game at the Shark Tank since the 2014 playoff collapse. San Jose fed off that energy and scored on the opening shift when Thornton skated across the faceoff circle and beat Quick.

The Kings then were forced to kill a penalty before taking over the play for much of the first period. Los Angeles got the equalizer on the power play when Lucic slid a pass across the crease to Kopitar, who knocked it in for his first goal in his past 11 games against San Jose.

"We knew they were going to come hard in this building. They always do," Pearson said. "It's not the start that we wanted obviously, but we trust each other in here that we were going to bounce back."