Philly Has A New King, Flyers Dethrone The Capitals
The Philadelphia Flyers battled from behind and beat the Washington Capitals 5-2 Wednesday night in Washington. Their 7th straight win. In their most important game of the season, the Flyers used a 3-goal 2nd period to propel themselves to the win.
Travis Konecny would score the first goal on the power-play. Ivan Provorov’s point shot would deflect off of Derek Grant in-front right to Konecny for the slam dunk.
Kevin Hayes would get his 23rd goal of the season next. Derek Grant would direct a point shot with his skate right to Kevin Hayes for the goal.
Derek Grant would get his 3rd assist of the night on the Flyers 3rd goal. Tyler Pitlick would score off a beautiful feed from behind the net by Michael Raffl, who was setup by Grant at the point.
Ivan Provorov put the game away with his 12th on the season. Out-hustling Alex Ovechkin in center, Jake Voracek found Provorov on the rush who beat Holtby glove side for the goal.
Scott Laughton got in on the fun late in the 3rd period. Firing a cross-ice pass that hit a Capitals skate that deflected by Holtby.
Brian Elliott stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced to earn the win.
Loose Pucks…
James van Riemsdyk played only 2:03 in the game tonight. During his 4th shift, JVR blocked a shot with his right hand and did not return. Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said “the x-rays did not look really good.”
Joel Farabee has been recalled by the Flyers and will play tomorrow night vs the Hurricanes. With JVR expected to miss an extended amount of time according to initial reports, Farabee will take his spot in the lineup for the foreseeable future.
New addition Derek Grant continues to assert himself into the Flyers lineup. After a sluggish first game, due in part to the red-eye to get here, Grant is on fire. Add in his 3 assists tonight, Grant has a goal & 4 assists in Philadelphia. Including points in back-to-back games.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel was once the forgotten about 2nd round pick that wasn’t making any strides. Now, Aube-Kubel is a full-time NHL player & continues to show it. Aube-Kubel extended his point streak to 4-games with his shot that Grant redirected to Hayes for the Flyers 2nd goal.
The Flyers handed the Capitals their first regulation loss when leading after the first period. Coming into tonight, the Capitals were 19-0-2 when leading after the 1st. The Flyers 3-goal 2nd period helped give the Capitals their first regulation loss when leading after the 1st tonight.
With the win, the Flyers are now just 1-point behind the Capitals for the Metro Division lead. A lead that could have the Flyers in 1st place tomorrow if the Flyers beat Carolina & Washington loses in New York.
Result : FLYERS 5 – CAPITALS 2 , WIN
Record : 39 – 20 – 7
Next Game : 3/5 Carolina Hurricanes, Philadelphia PA, NBCSports Philadelphia 7:00pm