Ovechkin Strikes Twice, Capitals Down Flyers

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Last season, the Flyers faced the Washington Capitals five times and somehow held Alex Ovechkin without so much as a single point. In now the sixth of eight meetings between the two in the 2020-21 season, consider it Ovi's revenge tour.

Ovechkin scored another pair of goals to bring his season total against the Flyers to eight and his career total to 730, as the Capitals handed the Flyers a 6-3 loss on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.

The first noteworthy piece of this game came before the puck dropped. Alex Lyon led the team onto the ice for warmups, as Carter Hart was a scratch late due to a lower-body injury.

Early in the game, the Flyers took a penalty and the Capitals power play went to work. As usual, their superstar took care of business from his spot.

Ovechkin picked up his first goal of the afternoon with a one-timer from the left circle, making it 1-0 Washington at 3:38.

The Capitals continued to carry play for most of the period, getting another power play as well, but the Flyers managed a late answer to even things up at one.

With one second remaining in the period, Ivan Provorov fired a one-timer that beat Ilya Samsonov and made it a 1-1 game. Through 20 minutes, shots were 11-6 Washington.

It took just 33 seconds into the second period for the Capitals to re-gain the lead. Dmitry Orlov fired a shot that glanced off of Travis Konecny and beat Lyon to make it 2-1.

The Flyers again got the game tied up at 5:28, as James van Riemsdyk got a breakaway and scored on Samsonov through the five-hole to even things up, 2-2.

In the next 47 seconds, the Flyers took a penalty, with Nicolas Aube-Kubel going to the box, and the Capitals scored, with Ovechkin getting his second power-play goal from his spot to make it 3-2.

With just under five minutes left in the period, the Flyers had another defensive collapse, allowing Evgeny Kuznetsov to walk in alone and score to make it 4-2.

The Flyers could not capitalize on a late power play and through 40 minutes trailed by two. Shots were 30-16 Washington after the second period.

On a power play just over seven minutes into the third, the Flyers cut the lead to one. A perfect passing play was capped off by Wade Allison, who buried it into an open net for his first NHL goal to make it 4-3.

Just 2:13 later, the Capitals were back up by two. Conor Sheary deflected home a shot by Justin Schultz to make it 5-3.

Anthony Mantha iced the game with an empty-net goal with 1:12 remaining.

Samsonov made 22 saves in the win. Lyon stopped 35 of 40 shots faced in the loss.

In addition to the two goals, Ovechkin also added an assist for a three-point game. Kuznetsov had a pair of assists in addition to his goal for a three-point game. John Carlson had four assists.

On the Flyers side, Claude Giroux finished with a pair of assists.

The Flyers get right back at it on Sunday evening, taking on the New York Islanders at 6:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• WSH Alex Ovechkin (23) PP (John Carlson, Evgeny Kuznetsov) 3:38
• PHI Ivan Provorov (7) (Claude Giroux, Joel Farabee) 19:59

2nd Period

• WSH Dmitry Orlov (7) (Carlson, Ovechkin) 0:33
• PHI James van Riemsdyk (14) (Nicolas Aube-Kubel) 5:28
• WSH Ovechkin (24) PP (Carlson, Kuznetsov) 6:15
• WSH Kuznetsov (8) (Tom Wilson, Carlson) 15:02

3rd Period

• PHI Wade Allison (1) PP (Kevin Hayes, Giroux) 7:02
• WSH Conor Sheary (12) (Justin Schultz, Lars Eller) 9:15
• WSH Anthony Mantha (14) EN (Unassisted) 18:48

Game Statistics