Caps Double Up Flyers, 6-3

Following a lackluster performance in a 5-2 home ice loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night, the Caps were eager to get back on the beam on Saturday afternoon against a desperate Philadelphia team. Washington accomplished its mission, delivering a stronger and more consistent effort in a 6-3 win over the Flyers.

John Carlson had a career high four assists and Alex Ovechkin netted a pair of power-play goals to pace the Capitals' attack. Each of the three Philadelphia goals was answered by a subsequent Washington strike soon afterwards, as the Caps never trailed after grabbing an early lead on Ovechkin's first goal of the game.
"I thought we played a strong game," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "It was really good from the start. Everybody seemed to be on point, we were skating harder, competing much better, sharper execution, a different ballgame."
Washington got off to a good start in Saturday's matinee match. On his second shift of the game, Ovechkin drew a tripping call on Philly's Justin Braun, giving the Caps an early power play opportunity. Ovechkin himself staked the Caps to a 1-0 lead, beating Flyers goalie Alex Lyon with a one-timer from the office off a Carlson tee-up at 3:38 of the first.

The Caps played well throughout most of the first frame, spending time in the offensive zone and killing off the Flyers' lone power play chance without incident. Washington seemed destined to take its 1-0 lead to the room until the final ticks of the period.
But Philadelphia won a board battle along the left half-wall in Washington ice, kicking the puck back to the point for Ivan Provorov. Provorov fired a clapper past Ilya Samsonov with exactly one second remaining in the period, tying the game at 1-1. Provorov's goal came on just the second even-strength shot on net the Flyers had in the first 20 minutes.
The Caps regained their lead mere seconds into the second period. Washington worked the puck around the perimeter of Philadelphia ice, and again Carlson put it on a tee, this time for partner Dmitry Orlov. Orlov's one-timer from above the left circle made it a 2-1 game just 33 seconds into the middle period.
Philadelphia responded with the tying tally a few minutes later. James van Riemsdyk got behind the Caps' defense, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel spotted him and sprung him into Washington ice. Van Riemsdyk did the rest, beating Samsonov through the five-hole at 5:28.
Less than a minute later, Ovechkin drew his second penalty of the afternoon, a hooking call on Aube-Kubel. And four seconds after the Philly forward was seated in the box, Ovechkin blasted home his second power-play goal of the afternoon, another one-timer from the office with Carlson supplying the primary apple. Ovechkin's second of the afternoon - his 24th of the season and the 730th of his NHL career - came at 6:15 and made it a 3-2 game.
In the back half of the frame, the Caps went up by a pair when Tom Wilson and Evgeny Kuznetsov combined for a beauty of a goal that would prove to be the game-winner. From the left half-wall, Wilson threaded a superb backhand feed through a maze of Flyers to Kuznetsov in the slot. From there, the Caps center deked Lyon and wristed it to the shelf at 15:02.

"A lot of the time, I'm just trying to find where those guys are on the ice when I get the puck," says Wilson, "because often it's in good hands if I can get it to them. I just saw him cutting through the middle of the ice, and it's a bit of a chance play, but I know he was going to be in that area. Obviously he makes a nice finish."
Washington ran into some penalty woes thereafter, taking three consecutive minor penalties in 7 minutes and 18 seconds of playing from late in the second to early in the third.
With 12 seconds remaining on the last of those minor penalties, the Flyers once again made it a one-goal game at 7;02 of the third. Philly's Wade Allison scored from the slot, netting his first NHL goal when he finished off a tic-tac-toe sequence to make it 4-3.
Again, the Caps wasted little time in responding. Just over two minutes later, Lars Eller won an offensive zone draw back to Justin Schultz at the point. Schultz fired, and Connor Sheary got piece of the drive, deflecting it past Lyon at 9:15 of the third, restoring the two-goal lead at 5-3.
Washington had a pair of late power play chances with which to pad its lead, but it wasn't necessary. Anthony Mantha scored into a vacant Flyers cage with 1:12 left to account for the 6-3 final.

"We put Alex in a real tough spot, and we didn't play real well in front of him. Obviously they're a good team, and they're capable of making a lot of plays, but we spent far too much time in our zone defending, and we gave them a power-play goal off a lost face-off, and their goal that took us out of the game there at 5-3 was another lost face-off, clean and right in the back of our net there."