Old allies help do in Capitals

PHILADELPHIA — PHILADELPHIA | A pair of former Washington Capitals players helped their old team to its first defeat of the exhibition season.

Glen Metropolit had the first goal and Steve Eminger set up the second in a 2-1 victory for the Philadelphia Flyers at Wachovia Center.

“I was pretty nervous before the game thinking about it. Seeing the schedule in the summer, this one has been marked on my calendar for a while,” said Eminger, who played against his former teammates for the first time. “I was pretty happy with how things went.”

Metropolit gave the Flyers the lead in the second period. Right wing Alexander Semin tried to chip the puck to himself along the right boards, but Philadelphia’s Joffrey Lupul stepped in and stole it.

That created a quick odd-man rush, and Lupul fed Metropolit in the middle of the ice for a shot through Caps netminder Brent Johnson’s legs.

Lupul made it 2-0 early in the third period with a power-play marker after a diagonal pass from Eminger.

Nicklas Backstrom notched his first tally of the preseason with 5:41 left in the third. He stopped a clearing attempt along the wall, and his quick shot from just above the goal line surprised goalie Martin Biron.

Washington struggled on the power play, though the Caps were without extra-man stalwarts Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green. The Caps, who entered the game converting extra-man chances at 38.1 percent clip, failed to capitalize on eight power-play chances.

Johnson stopped 22 of 24 shots. He has turned aside 56 of 59 attempts in his three appearances.