MONTREAL (AFP) - National Hockey League scoring king Alex Ovechkin scored two third-period goals Monday, giving Washington a 4-2 victory over Philadelphia to keep the Capitals alive in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Overdue Ovechkin netted 65 goals in the regular season but had gone four games without scoring against the tight-checking Flyers until a breakaway 2:46 into the third period to give the Capitals their first lead of the game at 3-2.

"I didn't put pressure on myself. I just played hard and played for a victory. Sometimes you just have to try something different to score goals," Ovechkin said.

Ovechkin added a power play goal with 9:19 remaining and the Capitals hung on level their best-of-seven opening-round series at three wins each, forcing game seven in Washington on Tuesday.

"Tomorrow will be the biggest game of our career," Ovechkin said. "We just don't want to stop. We're playing really good right now."

So are the Montreal Canadiens, the Eastern Conference top seeds who blasted visiting Boston 5-0 Monday to win their first-round series four games to three.

The Canadiens joined Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers in the second round with pairings to be decided depending on whether Washington or Philadelphia advances.

"We haven't won anything yet," Captials coach Bruce Boudreau said. "If we think we've won it we're in for a bad shock because we're going to have to lay it on the line tomorrow night."

The Western Conference playoffs also conclude Tuesday with game seven between Calgary and host San Jose. The winner joins Colorado, Dallas and regular-season leader Detroit in the West second round.

The Capitals, who trailed the Flyers 3-1, have not won a playoff series in 10 years, since reaching the 1998 Stanley Cup finals where they were swept by Detroit.

Washington had not met the Flyers in the playoffs in 20 years, since rallying from a 3-1 series deficit to eliminate Philadelphia.

Mike Richards opened the scoring with a power play goal 3:49 into the game and Daniel Briere gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead just 78 seconds into the second period.

"We knew we could come back," Ovechkin said. "We never stopped believing in each other."

But the Capitals answered just 8:16 later when Nicklas Backstrom took a pass from Alexander Semin and beat Flyers goaltender Martin Biron. Russian Semin hit the equalizer with 1:57 to play in the period to pull the Caps level after two.

That set the stage for Ovechkin's heroics.

"The stars, it seems to happen around them. Alex is no exception," Bourdreau said. "He worked so hard. I was so happy for him because you could see he was getting so frustrated."

At Montreal, Mike Komisarek gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead 3:31 into the game and Mark Streit doubled the lead with a breakaway goal 10:45 into the second period.

Montreal's Andrei Kostitsyn made the lead 3-0 with 4:47 remaining in the second period and added another power play goal with 2:02 remaining in the game. Sergei Kostitsyn added the final goal eight seconds before the end.