WASHINGTON (AP) – Washington Capitals coach Ron Wilson called the game meaningless, a mere diversion against a last-place team on the final day of the regular season.

"We want to carry that kind of game into the playoffs," right wing Peter Bondra said.

The third-seeded Capitals and sixth-seeded Penguins will meet this week in the postseason for the seventh time in 11 seasons. Pittsburgh has won all but one, including a five-game series victory last year that only reinforced the notion of a black-and-gold hex over the nation's capital.

"We're certainly not the favorites here," Wilson said. "I won't think on any Web site anywhere in the country you'll see anybody even hint that we have a chance in this series. We've got to go out, compete, defend, work very hard for every inch of space."

Ulf Dahlen scored 32 seconds into the final period for the game-winning goal against the Lightning, flipping his backhanded deflection of Jeff Halpern's shot over goaltender Wade Flaherty for his 15th goal.

Steve Konowalchuk scored a similar goal in the second, leaving the gritty Halpern-Konowalchuk-Dahlen line as the team's only consistent scoring threat entering the playoffs. The trio have accounted for seven of the Capitals' last eight goals.

"We're going to have to find ways of scoring, that's for sure," Wilson said. "But defensively we're back on top of our game."

Adrian Aucoin scored for the Lightning, who missed a chance to move out of last place in the Southeast Division. Youth-laden Tampa Bay finished with 59 points, five better than last year, but still one point behind fourth-place Atlanta.

"The core people are beginning to understand what we're trying to accomplish," coach John Tortorella said. "We're not near where we need to be to begin to move up the ladder from the cellar to the middle of the pack in this league, but I think they understand what to expect. And that's the thing we wanted to make sure they left with this year – how we're going to play and what it takes to play in this league."

Washington's 38-year-old center Adam Oates became the oldest player to lead or share the league lead in assists. Oates didn't have one Sunday, but his 69 assists tied him with Pittsburgh's Jaromir Jagr, who didn't play in the Penguins' finale Sunday against Carolina.

Oates surpasses Wayne Gretzky, who was 37 when he finished tied for the lead – also with Jagr – with 67 assists in the 1997-98 season.

Aucoin scored five seconds into a power play from the left circle for the only goal of the first period. Brad Richards got his 41st assist on the play, padding his huge lead to finish first in the category among rookies. Richards also led all rookies with 21 goals.

Jassen Cullimore nearly made it 2-0 in the final minute of the first when he emerged from the penalty box and took the puck for a breakaway. Goaltender Olaf Kolzig got a piece of the shot, then had to dive to glove the puck off the line to finish the save.

The Capitals made it 1-1 with the only score of the second, with Konowalchuk deflecting Brendan Witt's slap shot into the net for his career-high 24th goal.

But such game details meant little to Wilson, who has already been focusing on Pittsburgh at practices for several days.

"The game had absolutely no meaning at all. Period," Wilson said. "We've more than accomplished the goals we set out of the regular season. Now we go into the playoffs, and you ratchet everything down to zero."

Game notes
Bondra played in all 82 regular-season games for the first time in his 11-year career. ... Washington forward Chris Simon served the second game of his two-game elbowing suspension. ... Despite the loss, the Lightning finished 9-8-0-3 against Southeast teams, only the second time in franchise history the team had a winning record in their own division. ... The Capitals have won nine of their last 10 against the Lightning, including six in a row at home.

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