Sheary Caps Late Comeback for Capitals in Flyers OT Loss

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Alex Lyon was less than 60 seconds away from his first career shutout. Then the Capitals struck for the late goal they needed to force overtime.

Lars Eller scored with 39.8 seconds left in the third period, then Conor Sheary got the game-winner with a minute left in overtime to hand the Flyers a 2-1 loss on Saturday night.

The first two minutes of the game were marred by penalties. Ivan Provorov took a hooking penalty, then was hit with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on top of it to give the Capitals a four-minute power play. Seconds into the man-advantage, Tom Wilson took a hooking penalty of his own.

Throughout the first period, both teams generated chances off of sloppy play and bounces off choppy ice. Neither team scored, with the Capitals holding a 13-8 lead in shots through 20 minutes.

Early in the second, the Flyers got their first power play of the night, but were not able to score. The Capitals had a power play of their own midway through the period and also could not get a goal.

Again, both teams generated chances, but neither was able to score in the middle frame. Shots through two periods were 20-19 Flyers.

Early in the third, the Flyers got an opportunity and took advantage. On a two-on-one, Scott Laughton took it in himself and fired a shot bar down to give the Flyers the 1-0 lead at 3:42.

It took until the final minutes of the game, but the Flyers failed to score on a power play and that set up the Capitals chance. On a power play with 2:49 remaining, the Capitals did not score, but just seconds after the penalty expired, Anthony Mantha set up Eller for the one-timer and the tying goal.

That forced overtime, and while Laughton had a breakaway chance, the Capitals got the goal to decide it as Nic Dowd set up Sheary's chance and it bounced through the legs of Lyon and in.

Lyon made 38 saves in the loss. Craig Anderson made 28 saves in the win.

The Flyers have one more game remaining in the 2020-21 season, taking on the New Jersey Devils on Monday night at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• No Scoring

2nd Period

• No Scoring

3rd Period

• PHI Scott Laughton (9) (James van Riemsdyk) 3:42
• WSH Lars Eller (8) (Anthony Mantha, Justin Schultz) 19:20

Overtime

• WSH Conor Sheary (14) (Nic Dowd, Dmitry Orlov) 4:00

Game Statistics