WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin was a bit off -- and still on ta

WASHINGTON -- Alex Ovechkin was a bit off -- and still on target. The Russian star scored with 48 seconds left and goalie Phillip Grubauer off for an extra attacker to cap a late three-goal rally and the Washington Capitals went on to beat Philadelphia 5-4 in a shootout Sunday. "Ill be honest with you, I missed my shot," Ovechkin said. "It was kind of funny. I didnt get all of it." It was the second time in six days that Ovechkin scored the tying goal with less than a minute left to cap a rally from three goals down. On Tuesday night in a 6-5 shootout victory over Tampa Bay, Ovechkin powered the comeback with four goals. Mike Green cut Washingtons deficit to 4-2 with 8:40 remaining, and Dmitry Orlov pulled the Capitals within one with 3:31 to go. The two defencemen scored on long slap shots. "I think we had too much perimeter stuff, and once we just started peppering him with shots, one was bound to go in," Green said. "You look at the goals that went in, he either didnt see it, and it was just a floater, which could have been an easy save from that far out." Ovechkin then tied it with his NHL-leading 27th goal. "I think we had luck on our side today, especially at the end of the game," Ovechkin said. "Ill take it and the team will take it." In the shootout, Eric Fehr and Nicklas Backstrom for Washington and Grubauer made two saves on three shots to give Washington an improbable victory in the first meeting of the teams since they brawled at the end of the Capitals 7-0 victory in Philadelphia on Nov. 1. Marcus Johansson had a first-period power play goal for Washington, scoring on a pass from Ovechkin that went through the legs of a Philadelphia defender. Claude Giroux, Mark Streit, Sean Couturier and Jacob Voracek scored for Philadelphia, and Michael Raffl had three assists. "It doesnt matter how many goals you score and how many points you have in this league," Streit said. "Its a very bad loss." Streit scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period when he picked off a pass by Washington defender Karl Alzner and received a give-and-go feed from Raffl to make it 2-1. When Couturier and Voracek scored 1:14 apart early in the third period, the Flyers appeared on their way. "Nothing changed," Washington coach Adam Oates said. "A little bit of luck on the first goal. We got some life. The emotion of the game, I guess would be the one thing. Obviously the crowd gets into it and you feel a little bit better and make a push. Win a draw and before you know it, its a game." Washingtons Michael Latta and Philadelphias Zac Rinaldo traded punches and were sent off in the second period. Early in the third, the Capitals Steve Oleksy and the Flyers Wayne Simmonds received majors for fighting. The teams will meet again Tuesday night in Philadelphia. The primary combatants from Nov. 1 in a rare fight between goalies -- the Capitals Braden Holtby and the Flyers Ray Emery -- were on the bench. Steve Mason had 29 saves for Philadelphia, and Grubauer stopped 24 shots for Washington. NOTES: The Capitals have moved Brooks Laich to the long-term injured reserve list retroactive to Nov. 27 because of a strained groin. Sunday was the eighth straight game Laich has missed. He would be eligible to return Dec. 22. The 30-year-old centre played only nine games last season as he battled a similar injury, leading to sports hernia surgery in April. Laichs problems continued in September when he left the ice with a strained hip flexor in the first 10 minutes of the Capitals opening preseason practice. ... The Capitals recalled centre Michael Latta from Hershey and activated defenceman John Erskine, who had missed 21 games with a knee injury. Defenceman Nate Schmidt was sent back to Hershey. NEW YORK -- After further review, the play stands as called. Not because it was right, but because referees werent allowed to determine it was wrong. NBA officials were already considering expanding referees instant replay options before two key plays in this post-season couldnt be changed even after refs saw them on the monitor. For now, the rules are clear about what referees can look at. But Commissioner Adam Silver said the league will "inevitably" reach a point where they can do more. "So far, in terms of all of our triggers, weve tried to maintain a line of what is clearly objectively ascertainable," Silver said Thursday. "You know, foot on the line or not, buzzer or not. My sense is where well end up is giving the referees more discretion over what they can look at once we go to replay." Silvers comments to a group of Associated Press Sports Editors came hours before Atlantas Jeff Teague tossed in a wild 3-pointer as he dribbled left with the shot clock winding down and the Hawks leading Indiana by six. When officials later reviewed the shot to see if Teague was behind the arc, it was clear he had first stepped out of bounds before shooting. As Indiana players screamed for the basket to be overturned, referee Tony Brothers explained that it couldnt be. The Golden State Warriors hung on for a 109-105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 1 of their series after a similar replay issue. When officials went to the monitor to review a ball out of bounds with 18.9 seconds left and Golden State leading by two, they could see that the Warriors Draymond Green had first fouled Chris Paul. However, because that wasnt reviewable, all they could rule was the ball had gone off of Paul. Silver said its confusing for viewers to see something obvious on replay, yet the officials appear to have "blinders" on and do nothing about it. "I think the most difficult area now, even for our fans to understand, is when an official can go to replay and everyone can see something that looks like a foul or wasnt a foul, but yet the official is restricted from being able to apply, in essence, his judgment on the play," Silver said.dddddddddddd"And I think thats an area that I think inevitably were going to reach, where an official is going to need to have some more discretion." But senior vice-president of basketball operations Kiki VanDeWeghe said its a bit of a "slippery slope" in determining how far officials can look backward before the play they are reviewing. "Those are things that when you start to have subjective calls and youre looking at a lot of things, and youre giving more discretion on what to look at, those are the problems and the issues that you try to figure out," VanDeWeghe said. "But like Adam said, giving the referees a little bit more discretion when theres something obvious that happens within the context of the foul, you want to get it right." Clippers coach Doc Rivers, a member of the leagues competition committee, said the committee talked about it last year. They apparently had the same concerns as VanDeWeghe. "Its a hard one. It really is," Rivers said. "We all want them to get everything right. But how far does that go when you start doing that? How far do you go on that? Did he step on the line? Well, maybe he fouled him. But there was a travel down there. Look, there. At some point, is it just on the ball? Is it off the ball? It can go a long way. Just think, right now were looking at one play and it takes five minutes. If you start doing that, it may take forever." The competition committee will meet again for two days in July to recommend any changes, which would have to be approved by owners. VanDeWeghe agreed with Silver that the NBA will use more replay. "Its always a balancing act at the end of the day because we want to get the calls right, want to have the players decide the game, get the calls right, but also we dont want to have a four-hour game, so were continually balancing it," VanDeWeghe said. "But if we can utilize replays more, if we can utilize data more, were going to do it to make our game better." AP Sports Writer Antonio Gonzalez in