Ovechkin scores 715th goal in Capitals win against Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- Alex Ovechkin scored his 715th NHL goal for the Washington Capitals in a 5-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.

Ovechkin is two behind Phil Esposito for sixth in NHL history.
Nic Dowd scored twice, John Carlson scored a goal for his 500th NHL point, and Ilya Samsonov made 30 saves for Washington (16-6-4), which defeated Philadelphia 3-1 on Sunday to begin its three-game winning streak.
"It's important for a season like this to string some good games together and get some really good points down the stretch," Carlson said. "Those are always nice. It can really make up for a little dry spell here or there, but certainly this year with the shortened season, it's great."

Travis Konecny, Ivan Provorov and Scott Laughton scored, and Brian Elliott made 17 saves for Philadelphia (13-8-3), which has lost four of six games.
The Flyers had 13 giveaways, including seven in the first period.
"There's plays with the puck that you need to make in all three of those zones," Philadelphia coach Alain Vigneault said. "And, unfortunately, in their end we made some costly mistakes that led to rush opportunities that they were able to put in the back of our net. We had a push in the third, but it was obviously too late."
The teams will play again here Saturday.
The Capitals led 4-1 after the second period, but Provorov scored at 4-on-4 to make it 4-2 at 1:43 of the third period, and Laughton got the Flyers within 4-3 at 10:45.
It was reminiscent of what happened to the Capitals against the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday, when they led 4-1 in the third period before winning 5-4 in overtime.
"The other night, the wheels were coming off quickly, and by the end you're hanging on by a lug nut, and tonight was totally different," Washington coach Peter Laviolette said. "They were able to capitalize on a couple of chances. ... But from an even-strength defensive standpoint, I'm going to say we didn't give up six or seven chances the entire night that were quality chances. So I was really happy with the game."
Ovechkin gave the Capitals a 1-0 lead at 8:37 of the first period when he scored unassisted off a giveaway by Provorov.

Konecny scored a power-play goal to tie the game 1-1 at 11:14, but Conor Sheary put the Capitals ahead 2-1 at 13:10 when he scored on a partial breakaway.
Carlson scored off a drop pass from Jakub Vrana to make it 3-1 at 6:58 of the second period.
"It's a pretty cool achievement," Carlson said of reaching 500 points (111 goals, 389 assists). "I think I've been fortunate to have some great players around me for my entire career, so that certainly helps. It was nice to do it when we won."
Dowd made it 4-1 at 17:33. He drove to the net and lost control of the puck, but it bounced in off the skate of defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere.
Dowd scored an empty-net goal to make it 5-3 with 28 seconds remaining.
"It's tough coming back in this league," Laughton said. "When you're down 4-1 or whatever it was, it's tough to come back, especially in the third. ... The good thing is we got these guys coming up in two days. We get some rest here. They've come into our home building in the last week or so and taken four points from us. We got to be prepared and make it harder on them."
Each team was sent to its locker room with 1:29 left in the second period because of an issue with the glass near the Flyers bench. The remaining time was completed after the intermission.
NOTES: Capitals forward Lars Eller returned home to deal with a family matter and did not play. Laviolette said he wasn't sure when Eller would rejoin the team. ... Samsonov had an assist on Dowd's empty-net goal for his first NHL point. ... Ovechkin had seven shots on goal to give him 5,635, two behind Jaromir Jagr for second in NHL history. Ray Bourque is first with 6,209. ... It was Dowd's second two-goal game in the NHL; he scored twice against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 7, 2020. ... It was Konecny's 24th birthday.