POSTGAME 5: Late Collapse Costs Flyers vs. Caps, 5-3

In the first game of an eight-game homestand, the Philadelphia Flyers fell to the Washington Capitals, 5-3, at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. The Flyers led, 3-2, with time ticking under three minutes remaining and then the Flyers got buried under a sudden deluge of three unanswered goals.

The game was scoreless until 18:35 of the first period. A seeing-eye shot by Capitals defenseman Michal Kempny (1st goal of the season) gave Washington a 1-0 lead.
In the second period, a power play goal by the Flyers' Gerry Mayhew (4th) was answered by a 5-on-4 goal by Capitals rookie Joe Snively (4th). Travis Sanheim (4th) scored off the rush in the final minute to make it a 2-2 game.
Mayhew scored again (5th) during a 4-on-4 in the third period to put the Flyers in the driver's seat entering the waning minutes of regulation. Then the Caps received back-to-back goals by Garnet Hathaway (9th and 10th) and a long-range empty net goal by John Carlson (10th) to swing the outcome in their favor.
Martin Jones saw only 24 shots for the game, stopping 20. Ilya Samsonov earned the win with 30 saves on 33 shots.
The Flyers went 1 for 4 on the power play; a failed 5-on-3 in the third period proved costly. The Capitals went 1-for-3.
TURNING POINT
The Flyers played a strong game for 57 minutes and were in position to win after Mayhew's second goal of the game put them ahead, 3-2.
At 17:03, Washington's Carl Hageling won a board battle against Morgan Frost and sent the puck out to the point past Max Willman to Carlson. The ensuing shot went off Hathaway's pants and redirected past Jones to tie the game at 3-3.
At 18:48, a turnover by Ivan Provorov proved very costly. Hagelin sent the puck out to Hagelin, who fired a shot past Jones. Just like that, the Caps led, 4-3.
At 19:11, with the Flyers skating 6-on-5 and Jones pulled for an extra attacker, Carlson attempted to simply use the glass in his defensive zone to clear the puck. He got a bonus as it went all the way down the ice into the empty net. The play was reviewed on video to see if Hathaway played it with a high stick at it flew past the Washington blueline.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) Joe Snively had a prime scoring chance on a pass from Tom Wilson moments after the game's opening faceoff.
Max Willman was tripped by Michal Kempny exiting the defensive zone at the 1:41 mark of the first period. The Flyers got the game's first power play. The second unit generated some decent puck movement but there were no scoring chances of note.
Frost had a good defensive shift with a hit and a blocked shot. On the next shift, the Evgeny Kuznetsov line had the Claude Giroux line hemmed in. Jones made a save with Alex Ovechkin lurking near the net.
John Carlson turned the puck over directly onto Atkinson's stick but then erased his own mistake with a blocked shot. At the other end, Jones made a good save on Conor Sheary.
With 5:31 remaining in the opening period, Nick Seeler nicely blocked a Garnet Hathaway slap shot attempt out of play.
The Capitals took a 1-0 lead at the 18:35 mark. A center point shot by Kempny. found its way through a high screen. Jones was unable to track it and it beat him upstairs. The assists went to Nic Dowd and Garnet Hathaway; a goal for the Washington fourth line against the Flyers' top line and top D pair.
2) First period shots on goal were 11-8 in the Flyers' favor. The Caps had an 18-15 shot attempt edge (54.55 percent team Corsi). Philadelphia attempted to throw pucks at the net from a variety of angles and distances, with mixed success. Scoring chances were 7-5 in the Capitals' favor (5-0 in high-danger chances per Natural Stat Trick). The Capitals won 8 of 14 faceoffs. Credited hits were 9-4 in the Flyers' favor, and the Flyers blocked six shots (led by two from Seeler) to three by Washington.
3) Scott Laughton set up a chance for Travis Konecny -- an open look from the right slot -- on the first shift of the second period. The shot went off the outshot of the net.
Gerry Mayhew took shifts with Giroux and Atkinson in the second period. Oskar Lindblom moved to Frost's line.
A potential breakaway from Dmitry Orlov was fumbled away by the Washington defenseman. Bouncing pucks were an issue throughout the game.
Travis Sanheim jumped into the play twice up ice on the same shift but both of his shot attempts were blocked.
Laughton delivered a hit on Kempny. Trevor van Riemsdyk stepped in to defend his teammate, and fought Laughton at 7:37 of the second period. TVR received an instigator penalty and the Flyers went to their second power play. Good puck movement by the second unit -- Frost to Isaac Ratcliffe to Lindblom to Mayhew --- generated an open look from the slot for Mayhew, who made no mistake at 8:54.

Ratcliffe received an interference penalty at 9:57. The Caps went on their first power play. The Flyers were put into a 5-on-3 penalty kill for 45 seconds when Atkinson was penalized for putting the puck over the glass from the defensive zone. Capitals coach Peter Laviolette called a timeout to set a play.
With 18 seconds of 5-on-3 time, Ovechkin ripped a shot off the left post. The Flyers won the next draw and cleared the zone. Exiting the box, Ratcliffe had a slow-to-develop breakaway opportunity but the play was broken up before he could move in on Samsonov. Finally, with 23 seconds of 5-on-4 time remaining, Washington had second-chance and third-chance cracks, and Snively finally finished it at 12:49. Sheary and Orlov got the assists.
With 5:30 remaining in the middle stanza, Laughton was stopped at the doorstep. A stretch of whistle-free hockey ensued. Finally, with remaining, Samsonov gloved a Sanheim point shot for a stoppage with 3:29 on the clock.
Frost held his own defensively against Kuznetsov. On the next shift, Konecny had a shot from the right circle and Laughton (again) had one near the net.
The Flyers knotted the score at 2-2 with 58.4 seconds seconds remaining in the second. On a pretty goal off the rush, Sanheim jumped into the rush and finished off a tape-to-tape passing sequence from Giroux to Konecny to the goal-scorer.

The Capitals made a push over the remainder of the period but the game went to the second intermission tied.
4) The Flyers had a 12-6 shot on goal edge in the second period. The Flyers had 22 of 35 shot attempts in the frame (62.86 percent team Corsi). Scoring chances were 10-4 in the Flyers' favor (6-3 high-danger edge). Through two periods, Giroux led the Flyers by far in faceoff success (9-for-10). The Capitals blocked six Flyers shots in the second period to five Flyers blocks on the Caps (11-9 Flyers lead overall, but Washington's Martin Fehervary led all players with four). Notably, Ovechkin was held to one shot on goal through the opening 40 minutes (two were blocked, one missed the net, one hit the post).
5) Ovechkin lurked near the net on a Carlson point shot moments into the start of the third period. At 1:12, after Provorov turned the puck over amid a Flyers' line change, Jones stopped Snively from the right circle.
Konecny found Braun joining the play up ice. Samsonov fought off Braun's shot from the top of the right circle.
At 7:49, Giroux drew a holding penalty on Kempny on an offensive zone entry. The Flyers got a 1:39 length 5-on-3 as Tom Wilson took out Laughton's leg and received a tripping penalty. The Flyers had a lot of attack time but could not cash in.
Laughton was penalized for tripping at 10:30. AJones made a tough stop at the net on a near tic-tac-toe sequence for the Caps with Wilson in the middle.
At 14:02, Keith Yandle was called for a retaliatory roughing penalty in response to an elbow by Nic Dowd. The teams skated 4-on-4 after it initially seemed that Yandle would get the only penalty. During the ensuing 4-on-4, Mayhew had a wraparound opportunity. Shortly thereafter, Sanheim received the puck from Provorov and attacked toward the net. Mayhew found a seam, received the pass and scored a go-ahead goal off Samsonov's pad into the net.

Jones made a ten-bell save on a scorching shot by Ovechkin from the center slot at 16:43. Shortly thereafter, though, the floodgates opened for Washington.
Third period shots on goal were 11-10 Washington. Overall, the Flyers had a 54.9 percent team Corsi for the night, a 28-19 scoring chance edge and an 11-10 high danger chance edge. All that mattered at the end of the night, however, was the blown late lead and another regulation loss.