Braden Holtby made 35 saves for the Capitals (44-24-8), who are one point ahead of the New York Islanders. The Capitals are 1-1-1 in their past three games and 10-3-1 in their past 14.
"Big thing about this time of year is feeling good about your game and executing," Washington's Tom Wilson said after the Capitals rebounded from a 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Friday. "We didn't feel that we really did that against Minnesota very well and just wanted kind of a bounce-back game and we did enough to get the win."
WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Capitals highlights]
Jakub Voracek scored for the Flyers (36-32-8), who are 2-5-0 in their past seven games after going 6-1-1 in their previous eight. They are eight points behind the Montreal Canadiens for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"It's not a secret. Right now, it's going to be real tough to get in," Philadelphia's Claude Giroux said. "Two weeks ago, I think we had confidence in our group, we liked the way we were playing and last two weeks hasn't gone our way."
Brian Elliott made 27 saves for Flyers, who were playing the second of back-to-backs after losing to the New York Islanders 4-2 on Saturday.
"Holtby was great. [Elliott] was great as well. He made a couple big stops. We just didn't score," Vorcek said. "We had so many chances. I think we moved pretty well. For us playing our third game in three and a half days, I think we moved better than them, just couldn't score more than one."