The Philadelphia Flyers couldn’t rack up a second consecutive victory tonight after their 4-1 defeat to the Washington Capitals.
The game was a lot closer than the score would dictate as the Flyers were down 2-1 with two minutes remaining in regulation before Alexander Ovechkin scored two empty netters for his 794th and 795th career NHL goals.
Kevin Hayes opened the scoring with his 9th goal of the season on the power play late in the first period before the Capitals scored 4 unanswered goals. Dylan Strome’s deflection with 10 minutes remaining in the third period stood as the game-winner after Carter Hart misread the deflection from John Carlson’s simple point shot.
Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves for Washington, Hart made 23 saves in the loss, and Travis Konecny and Tony DeAngelo chipped in with helpers on the Flyers’ lone goal.
The Flyers welcomed back James van Riemsdyk after missing the last 20 games with a broken finger. The suddenly healthy-ish Flyers have recently welcomed back Travis Konecny, Scott Laughton, Tony DeAngelo, and now van Riemsdyk to an injury ridden roster. Cam Atkinson should be returning soon, which would mark the first time in a long time the Flyers will be healthy – with the exclusion of the Ryan Ellis’ season-ending injury and Sean Couturier’s back issues.
The lines looked a lot more palatable now with Travis Konecny, Kevin Hayes, and Noah Cates at the top. Morgan Frost was centering James van Riemsdyk and Owen Tippett, Lukas Sedlak was in the middle of Joel Farabee and Scott Laughton, and then a bruising fourth line of Nicolas Deslauriers, Patrick Brown, and Zack MacEwen rounded out the offence. The defence remained the same with DeAngelo on the third pair with Nick Seeler and Rasmus Ristolainen pegged as the top pair defenceman with Ivan Provorov.
For the Capitals, they came in even more banged up without Nicklas Backstrom, Darcy Kuemper, Carl Hagelin, Dmitry Orlov, Tom Wilson, and Connor Brown.
FIRST PERIOD
4:19 into the game the Flyers were sent on the power play, looking for the same recipe that conjured up 2 power plays goals last game. The Capitals were able to kill the penalty with relative ease but the Flyers carried all the play and momentum up until that point with a 5-0 shot advantage almost 8 minutes into the game.
After an ill-advised pass from James van Riemsdyk in his own zone – instead of moving forward he passed it back to his defensemen who weren’t expecting it – Nick Seeler was called for a hooking minor after turning it over to the Capitals behind the net. The Capitals had a few chances but the Flyers kept them to the outside the whole time.
With 5:44 remaining in the period, the Flyers who hadn’t recorded a shot on goal in almost 7 minutes were sent back to the power play after Travis Sanheim was hooked by Conor Sheary. It was another tremendous showing for the suddenly hot man advantage as they struck on their first shot in over 8 minutes after Kevin Hayes’ long shot found its way past Charlie Lindgren for the 1-0 lead. Hayes initially broke his stick, left the zone to retrieve it, DeAngelo and Konecny played pitch and catch until Hayes returned and he fired away for his 9th of the season.
The Capitals broke down into a box in front of Lindgren a few times on the power play as they allowed the Flyers to walk in for a dangerous chance. Konecny’s first opportunity went just wide, it was corralled in by Hayes who took the shot with Konecny heading in front of the net to screen the goaltender.
On the next shift, Alexander Ovechkin had a glorious chance and a yawning cage to shoot at with Carter Hart sprawled out but on his knees his shot hit the top crossbar. While all this happened, Lukas Sedlak was called for a tripping minor on Ovechkin – which is why he took that shot on his knees – but there didn’t seem to be any contact from Sedlak as he might’ve fallen on his own accord.
After killing the penalty with another strong effort, Zack MacEwen tripped up Trevor van Riemsdyk with 53 seconds left but the Capitals possessed the puck for an extra 42 seconds before the Flyers finally got possession with 11 ticks remaining. The Flyers survived a quick flurry at the end of the period with several hard blocked shots as they entered the first intermission up 1-0 with a 7-4 shot advantage.
SECOND PERIOD
After successfully killing another penalty, the Flyers were called for yet another infraction as James van Riemsdyk went to the sin bin for tripping 2:21 into the period. Finally the Capitals broke their goose egg with a power play goal on their fourth attempt. T.J. Oshie in his bumper position slapped one past Hart’s high glove, which was somewhat aided by the fact that Sedlak lost his stick before the goal and the set up.
Heading into the first commercial break of the second period, the Capitals held an 11-8 shot advantage in the game, which isn’t much to snuff at but the Flyers only had 3 shots in the last 19 minutes. The Flyers came out of the commercial break with 3 quick chances but things slowed down real quick soon after.
The remaining 10 minutes of the second period had sort of a lull but that had more to do with the defensive play from both teams. The neutral zone was being clamped down, once they entered the offensive zone they were kept to the outside, and dangerous chances were a scarcity. Just two division rivals playing hard, banging bodies, and tightening up defensively.
The Capitals took that period by tying the game early on their 4th power play of the game, held a shot advantage of 12-8 in the period and 16-15 after 40. Just another close and tight game between these two teams as the Flyers look to exact revenge for their late game blow-up a few weeks ago that ended in an overtime loss.
THIRD PERIOD
9:19 into the final frame, the Capitals took the lead courtesy of Dylan Strome. It’s not the goal Carter Hart would like to look at a second time because John Carlson’s simple point shot got deflected in the slot by Dylan Strome that got past the goaltender who wasn’t anticipating a tip-in effort. Hart went for the catch of the point shot and Strome’s deflection went the opposite direction.
With a chance to tie the game with over 9 minutes to go, the suddenly dangerous Flyers found themselves on a power play. To start the power play, Kevin Hayes was inches away from his second goal of the game but his one-time opportunity clanged off the post. Owen Tippett and James van Riemsdyk had their cracks as well but couldn’t beat the goaltender.
With 2:11 remaining in regulation, the Flyers pulled Hart for the extra attacker. The Flyers dumped the puck in straight to the goaltender who gloved it down, passed it to his defenseman behind the net, who then sent an outlet pass to Alex Ovechkin in the neutral zone. It was a one on one situation with Tony DeAngelo and as he waited, waited, waited, and he found an opening and iced the game with his second goal in as many games against the Flyers this season.
Ovechkin scored his second empty net goal in a minute and a half and after feeling like he was being shown up, Travis Konecny had some words for the goal-scorer, feeling his finish was a little unnecessary. Konecny received a 10 minute misconduct penalty as the game ended in a 4-1 defeat for the Flyers.
The Flyers played well, had a strong third period, but couldn’t find the back of the net when required. Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves and Ovechkin iced the game with 794th and 795th career goals.
UP NEXT
The Flyers hit the road for a four-game road trip beginning on Friday night against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena at 10:00pm.
