Konecny has hat trick, runs point streak to 10, Flyers defeat Capitals

PHILADELPHIA -- Travis Konecny had a hat trick and extended his point streak to 10 games for the Philadelphia Flyers in a 5-3 win against the Washington Capitals at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday.

Konecny has 20 points (12 goals, eight assists) during his streak, the longest active streak in the NHL and the longest by a Flyers player since Claude Giroux had a 10-game point streak in 2017-18.
"I've just been trying to come to the rink every day and just working hard," Konecny said. "I'm kind of getting my bounces right now. It goes around in the locker room throughout a season, and it's just going my way right now. It's not like things are changing. My linemates ... whoever I've been playing with this year, have been putting me in Grade A opportunities. They're just going in right now."
Scott Laughton had a goal and two assists, and Owen Tippett had a goal and an assist for Philadelphia (17-18-7), which won for the sixth time in seven games. Carter Hart made 26 saves.
"We're playing more confident offensively, and with that comes results, and obviously when results are coming there's confidence that comes throughout the group," Tippett said. "I think we're all enjoying winning and we want to keep it going."
Garnet Hathaway, Marcus Johansson and T.J. Oshie scored, and Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves for Washington (23-15-6), which had its record seven-game road winning streak end.
"In the third I think we had chances to tie that game and just didn't get it done, so that's frustrating," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "There's things that we did that shot ourselves in the foot."

Konecny's first goal, at 19:27 of the first period, gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead and came 21 seconds after the Capitals had tied it 1-1.
"That goal was big," Konecny said. "When you take the lead going into the break, it's always a big momentum thing for the game and also for our line. We had been against [Alex] Ovechkin's line for most of that period, and we didn't really have much, we were giving up a lot of chances against, and I think that helped us too, kind of settled us into the game and got us our momentum and confidence back."
Konecny finished a 2-on-1 rush with Laughton for a short-handed goal at 7:28 of the third period to make it 4-1 and closed the scoring with an empty-net, power-play goal at 19:47 for the 5-3 final.
The goals also give Konecny 24 in 36 games, tying his NHL career high, which he reached three times, the last in 2019-20, but he scored a total of 27 goals the past two seasons.
"I just think he's playing," Flyers coach John Tortorella said. "He's a reactionary-type player. I've only seen him play from afar before this year. He just plays. The puck finds him. He plays in the [right] areas. Everything about his game, his effort, I think he's getting rewarded."

Laughton put Philadelphia ahead 1-0 at 7:26 of the first with a power-play goal from just inside the blue line.
Hathaway tied it 1-1 at 19:06. Nick Jensen chipped the puck past Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim and passed across to Hathaway, who scored from the far post.
Tippett made it 3-1 at 5:31 of the third when he scored from the right face-off circle.
Johansson scored off a giveaway by Flyers defensemen Ivan Provorov 1:50 after Konecny completed his hat trick, cutting it to 4-2 at 9:18.
Oshie scored on a backhand from the slot to make it 4-3 at 14:42. Nicklas Backstrom had an assist for his first point of the season. Backstrom was playing his second game after returning from offseason hip resurfacing surgery.
"I told him earlier I was struggling trying to get him the puck tonight," Oshie said. "It usually works out better when he has it in his hands and gets it to me."

NOTES:Konecny is the first NHL player to score an even-strength, power-play and short-handed goal in the same game this season, and the first Flyers player to do so since Mark Recchi on Oct. 12, 2002. It was Konecny's second NHL hat trick; he also had one against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 15, 2021. ... Capitals defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk had his 100th NHL assist in his 500th NHL game. … It was Kuemper's first regulation loss in his past 12 starts dating to Nov. 19 (7-1-3). … The teams play the second of the home-and-home series Saturday at Washington. … Ovechkin had six shots on goal in 20:43 of ice time. He remains one goal from his 17th 30-goal season, which would tie Mike Gartner for the most in NHL history.