The Flyers chased Capitals goalie Braden Holtby midway through the second period but had to hang on for a 6-4 win in a chippy, exciting game at the Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday night. Flyers goals were scored by Claude Giroux (2), Jakub Vorack (2), Michael Raffl, and Steve Downie (EN), while Joel Ward, Alex Ovechkin, Troy Brouwer, and Brooks Laich tallied for the Capitals. Steve Mason made 21 of 25 stops in the Flyers' net.
The Orange and Black were a step ahead of the Capitals from the start, with a flurry of quality chances by Vincent Lecavalier, Downie and Zac Rinaldo in the first six minutes. Then, at 6:48 of the first, Claude Giroux got on the board with a nifty backhand deke on Capitals goalie Braden Holtby for a 1-0 lead.
Two minutes later, Rinaldo laid out Washington winger Brouwer with a clean bruising check, drawing a slashing penalty on Brouwer for retaliation. The Flyers wasted little time on the man advantage, as Voracek's first of the night made it 2-0 just 13 seconds later – and just nine minutes into the game. After some good hitting from both clubs, tempers flared as Luke Schenn put a punishing hit on Ryan Stoa right in front of the Flyers bench – which finally woke up the Caps. Fights ensued with the Capitals' John Erskine and Tom Wilson versus Luke Schenn and Lecavalier in two separate bouts. After the sticks and gloves were picked up, the Flyers were to kill a two minute minor, and had lost Lecavalier to a game misconduct.
The final eight minutes saw the Flyers dominate the Capitals as they led 2-0 after one and outshot them 13-3 for the period.
While the game wasn’t as physical to start the 2nd period, the Flyers were just as dominant. Giroux scored his second of the evening to make it 3-0 off of a Mike Green turnover right in front of Holtby at 5:26.
Raffl got on the board less than seven minutes later on a deflection from a Luke Schenn point shot, and Washington coach Adam Oates pulled Holtby in favor of recent call-up Phillip Grubauer with the score 4-0. At 14:06, with Luke Schenn off for tripping, the Caps finally got on the board with a power play goal by Ward, assisted by Ovechkin and Green to make it 4-1 on just their sixth shot of the game. The Flyers had a dominant 40 minutes and just needed to keep it up.
In the third, the rough play picked up a bit, with Downie getting called for an elbowing minor at 4:53. Mason was peppered on the power play, making a number of saves until yielding a goal to Ovechkin with 13:25 left to make it 4-2. Six minutes later, the Flyers had a defensive mix-up, leaving Washington’s Brouwer in front of goalie Steve Mason – and Brouwer slammed home a one-timer to make it 4-3 with just over 10 minutes to go. The dominant 40 minutes was on the verge of being lost – and Coach Berube may have sensed just that as he called a time-out after the Brouwer goal. It appears that Berube has a pretty good pulse of his team, as Voracek scored his second of the night less than two minutes later, set up by Scott Hartnell to make it 5-3.
Just 30 seconds later, Mark Streit was whistled for hooking and on the powerplay, Washington’s Laich appeared to score with a deflection up around the letters to make it 5-4 with exactly six minutes to go. After a quick review, the goal was allowed and again, the Caps drew within one.
The final six minutes were frantic, as the Caps had a good amount of sustained pressure, but Mason was up to the task. With 52 seconds remaining and Grubauer pulled for the extra attacker, Downie found the back of an empty net from center ice and that sealed the game. The 6-4 win was a relief, and a sweep of the home-and-home series with the Caps that started on Sunday.
