VANCOUVER www.officialsenators.com , British Columbia — The clock is ticking on the Philadelphia Flyers.The Flyers (12-14-4) are trying to prevent time from running out on their season — and their jobs — as they prepare to visit the Vancouver Canucks (14-16-4) on Saturday night.The NHL playoffs are still a possibility, albeit a remote one. But fans and the media are focusing more on the players’ short-term future as new general manager Chuck Fletcher evaluates the organization that he took over from the fired Ron Hextall.Article continues below ...Flyers’ top brass did not like Hextall’s slow-build approach, so he was sacked earlier this month after four seasons. Fletcher, a former Minnesota Wild GM, has indicated that a trade is just a matter of time.“It is difficult (to make deals in mid-season) but that’s reality — my reality,” he told Postmedia in Edmonton, where the Flyers bowed 4-1 to the Oilers on Friday night. “It’s a fun challenge. This is the time of year where everybody is looking. I don’t think there is a general manager who looks at his team and says, ‘You know what? We have every hole filled and we love our depth.’“This has always been the active part of the season, but for me, I’m trying to get a sense from talking to other GMs: Who do you like on our team?And, who are you trying to move? Every team is hoping to add a player, fill one hole.”While Fletcher tries to plug holes off the ice, the players are struggling to fill them on it. The Flyers were still reeling Friday from a 6-5 overtime loss Wednesday in Calgary, where they squandered a two-goal lead in the final 1:08 of regulation time and surrendered the winning tally just 35 seconds into the extra session.After being close to returning, injured No. 1 goaltender Brian Elliott has returned to Philadelphia, apparently for treatment on a hip issue.“He’s not going to be available for the rest of the trip,” coach Dave Hakstol told reporters Friday while sidestepping the reason for the goalie’s return home.The club’s goaltending woes were compounded by veteran Michal Neuvirth’s return to Philly to be with his wife as she was preparing to give birth. Rookie Anthony Stolarz, who started Friday and was in goal for Wednesday’s loss, is expected to get most of the netminding work for the foreseeable future. Fellow minor-league callup Alex Lyon Ottawa Senators T-Shirts Authentic , promoted on Thursday due to Neuvirth’s departure, will likely serve mainly as the backup.The Flyers have suffered four straight losses. Hakstol just wants Stolarz to continue to build his game.Meanwhile, the Canucks hope to build momentum following a three-game road trip on which they earned five of a possible six points.“We’ve got to be happy with our road trip from our group,” center Bo Horvat told reporters. “Both goaltenders (Jacob Markstrom and Anders Nilsson) played well, and that’ll give us a lot of confidence going home.”The Canucks were bolstered by their second straight late-game rally in Nashville on Thursday night, although they wound up losing 4-3 in overtime.“Like I’ve said all year, we have character in this (dressing) room,” forward Brock Boeser told Sportsnet. “(Thursday’s rally) shows our character. That’s a huge point to get.”While the Flyers play the second game of back-to-back road contests, the Canucks will host the first of two home games on consecutive nights.That likely means Markstrom and Nilsson will split the games. Markstrom appears likely to play against the Flyers after serving as the backup Thursday. Nilsson, who has lost seven straight games, could get the call Sunday against Edmonton. LAS VEGAS (AP) Alex Tuch collected the skittering puck with absolutely nothing between him and the tying goal with two minutes left in Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.Braden Holtby reacted with pure instinct.Washington’s goalie stretched back and lunged to his right with his stick, thrusting the paddle into the exact 4-inch slot of air through which Tuch’s shot was headed for the net.”Luckily it hit me,” Holtby said with a shrug.The Washington goalie’s coaches and teammates weren’t quite so calm about a save that will go down in Capitals history as the key to a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night, evening the series at one game apiece.The win was the Caps’ first-ever Stanley Cup Final victory – and the save might be a catalyst to even bigger things.”To me, it was the hockey gods,” Washington coach Barry Trotz said. ”They evened it up from the last game. Great save. You could see the emotion on our bench. Once he made that save, I knew we were going to win the game.”Holtby made 37 saves, but he got help from earthly sources as well. Alex Ovechkin scored a power-play goal, his first in a Final Ottawa Senators Hoodies Authentic , Brooks Orpik ended a personal 220-game goal drought with the eventual winner, and Lars Eller added a goal and two assists.”We refocus and pick each other up and that’s a sign of a good team,” Holtby said. ”That’s one of our strengths.”Game 3 is Saturday night in Washington. The Caps are just 4-5 at home in the postseason, but they’ll ride a wave of momentum after going into the Golden Knights’ daunting home arena and taking away home-ice advantage in Washington’s first Stanley Cup Final in 20 years.After getting battered in the Knights’ 6-4 series-opening win, Holtby made several big saves throughout Game 2, coming up particularly big while Washington killed a 5-on-3 disadvantage for 1:09 earlier in the third period. He capped his energetic performance with that jaw-dropping stick save on Tuch with 1:59 to play.”Holts just makes the save of the year,” Washington forward Jay Beagle said. ”Maybe the save of a lifetime. It’s unreal.”The T-Mobile Arena crowd was stunned, but after several months of watching this expansion team push through every obstacle, the Knights couldn’t get around Holtby’s stick.”Thank God he’s our goalie,” Ovechkin said. ”He’s over there when we need him, and it was probably the save of the year for sure.”Washington overcame another big blow when it lost leading scorer Evgeny Kuznetsov to an upper-body injury in the first period after a big hit from Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb, but the Caps avoided any hotheaded retaliation and concentrated on a gritty effort that was enough to even the series.James Neal and Shea Theodore scored and Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 shots for the upstart Knights, who couldn’t summon their usual clutch magic, even with lengthy man advantages. Thanks to Holtby’s 15 saves, Vegas finally went scoreless in the third for the first time in six periods in this series.Washington handed the Golden Knights only their second home defeat – the first in regulation – in Vegas’ nine postseason games.”I think it’s really important that we take a step back and take a deep breath and know that you’re not going to win this series in two games,” Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt said. ”We’re a special group. We can go out and win games on the road. We’ve done it all playoffs.”So have the Capitals, who improved to 9-3 on the road after two games in this frequently chaotic series.The Caps have made the playoffs in 13 of 19 seasons since their only other trip to the Final in 1998, but hadn’t managed to get their fans back to the final round until this year. Capital One Arena in downtown Washington was packed with red-clad fans watching Game 2 on the videoboards.The temperature on the Las Vegas Strip spiked to triple digits in the hours before Game 2, likely making it the hottest Final game in NHL history. But the heat didn’t fry the spirits of the fans who filled the plaza next to the arena to capacity before the puck dropped Ottawa Senators Hats Authentic , continuing this gambling mecca’s fanatical support of its first major pro sports team.Shortly after Neal opened the scoring for Vegas in Game 2, Kuznetsov went straight to the dressing room after absorbing a high check from McNabb. The game immediately took on a nastier tone, and the teams played 4-on-4 hockey moments later after a prolonged scrum led to two penalties.Trotz gave no postgame update on Kuznetsov’s condition.”(That hit) galvanized us as a group,” Trotz said. ”This group has learned so much. They’ve gotten so resilient. This group has had everything thrown at them, and they just say, `You know what? We’re going to push on.”’Washington attacked and evened it shortly afterward with a goal from Eller, who had failed to hit an open net on a rushed play for a potential tying goal late in Game 1.Washington’s excellent power play finally got a chance early in the second period, and Ovechkin scored a vintage goal with his powerful shot from a sharp angle. The Russian superstar led the NHL with 49 goals in the regular season and added 12 more in the Eastern Conference playoffs before scoring the first Stanley Cup Final goal of his 13-year, 1,121-game NHL career.The Caps then got a thoroughly unlikely contribution from Orpik, whose deflected shot bounced fortuitously off the ice and beat Fleury. The grinding veteran forward with a 2009 Stanley Cup ring from Pittsburgh hadn’t scored since Feb. 26, 2016, adding up to the longest active goal-scoring drought in the NHL.The persistent Knights earned a power play and cut the Caps’ lead to 3-2 late in the second on Theodore’s shot through traffic.NOTES: The first two games of the Final were split for only the third time in the last 13 editions. … The Golden Knights have scored the opening goal in the first period of all nine of their postseason home games. … Washington needs three more wins to become the second team in NHL history to win a Cup after trailing in all four postseason rounds, joining Pittsburgh in 1991. … T-Mobile Arena reported 18,702 fans in the sold-out building, setting a franchise record for attendance.—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals