Washington Capitals (13-2-4 30pts) v. Philadelphia Flyers (10-5-2 22pts)
Game Recap:
Coming to Philadelphia to visit an old friend, the Washington Capitals would take on Matt Niskanen and the Flyers for a Metropolitan Division matchup. In the first seven minutes of the game the Capitals would swarm the Flyers in all three zones and it would pay off as the Capitals would not only out shoot the Flyers 7-1, but would also strike first off of a hard hustle from the Capitals grind line of Garnet Hathaway, Nic Dowd, and Brendan Leipsic as they would get the puck to John Carlson for a point shot and Leipsic would crash the net to cash in on the rebound to take the 1-0 lead. The Capitals and Flyers would both trade powerplay opportunities, but neither team would be able to capitalize on them. Especially the Capitals who looked very sloppy with their first powerplay. the Capitals would draw another penalty in the final minute of the period to give them an abbreviated powerplay to start the second period.
In the second period the Capitals would waste away the powerplay opportunity to start the period and would then be outplayed for the first half of the period, including a powerplay opportunity for the Flyers that they would not capitalize on themselves. The Capitals would get another powerplay opportunity in the second half of the period, and would waste their opportunity once again. The Capitals powerplay so far through three chances has looked horrible. Passes aren’t connecting and are trying to force it too much. However, the Capitals penalty kill has been spectacular killing off all three chances the Flyers have had. The Flyers would out shoot the Capitals 12 to 6 in the second period, but Braden Holtby would stand tall for the Capitals to keep the 1-0 lead.
In the third period the Capitals would play with a very lackluster play as the Flyers would once again be buzzing on the Capitals, and on a Nic Dowd tripping call it would be Claude Giroux tying up the game while on the man advantage. In the final five minutes of regulation the Capitals would start to pick up the play and Tom Wilson in particular would get golden opportunity after golden opportunity only to be denied by Carter Hart on three to four high quality scoring chances. Then in overtime the Flyers would take advantage of the long change as they would be able to do three line changes while Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Dmitry Orlov were trapped on the ice for over two minutes, but to their credit were able to keep the Flyers to the outside and kept the shot quality as low as possible. Then in the shootout the Capitals would get goals from Evgeny Kuznetsov and TJ Oshie to clinch the 2-1 victory over the Flyers.
Lineups:
Washington Capitals:
Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Chandler Stephenson — Lars Eller — Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic — Nic Dowd — Garnet Hathaway
Michal Kempny — John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov — Radko Gudas
Jonas Siegenthaler — Nick Jensen
Braden Holtby
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched: None
Injured: Carl Hagelin (upper body)
Radko Reunion!#CapsFlyers News / Notes: https://t.co/6EbskOdL0z#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/RIvctpTHvp
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 14, 2019
Philadelphia Flyers:
James van Riemsdyk — Claude Giroux — Joel Farabee
Oskar Lindblom — Sean Couturier — Travis Konecny
Carsen Twarynski — Kevin Hayes — Jakub Voracek
Andy Andreoff — Michael Raffl — Tyler Pitlick
Ivan Provorov — Matt Niskanen
Shayne Gostisbehere — Justin Braun
Travis Sanheim — Philippe Myers
Carter Hart
Brian Elliott
Scratched: Chris Stewart, Robert Hagg
Injured: Nolan Patrick (migraine disorder), Scott Laughton (broken finger)
First Period:
WAS Goal – 6:13 – Brendan Leipsic (2) from John Carlson (22) and Nic Dowd (2)
Carly throws it on net and hits Leipsic for the dunk! #CapsFlyers pic.twitter.com/8KZ2M7T7FT
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) November 14, 2019
PHI Penalty – 9:23 – Matt Niskanen 2 minutes for Holding
WAS Penalty – 15:26 – Jakub Vrana 2 minutes for Slashing
PHI Penalty – 19:02 – Travis Sanheim 2 minutes for Hooking
End of 1st
Second Period:
WAS Penalty – 5:46 – Richard Panik 2 minutes for High Sticking
PHI Penalty – 10:47 – James van Riemsdyk 2 minutes for Tripping
WAS Penalty – 13:01 – Jakub Vrana 2 minutes for Slashing
End of 2nd
Third Period:
WAS Penalty – 6:15 – Nic Dowd (Jakub Vrana) 2 minutes for Tripping
PHI PPG – 6:38 – Claude Giroux (5) from Jakub Voracek (9) and Ivan Provorov (8)
Silky mitts and the dish from @jachobe to @28CGiroux. #WSHvsPHI | #FlyOrDie pic.twitter.com/B5X1YUv808
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) November 14, 2019
End of 3rd
Overtime:
N/A
Shootout:
1 – PHI – Jakub Voracek – Missed
1 – WAS – TJ Oshie – Goal
2 – PHI – Claude Giroux – Goal
2 – WAS – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Goal
3 – PHI – Sean Couturier – Save
Final
Next Up:
Washington (14-2-4 32pts) v. Montreal (9-5-3 21pts)
Philadelphia (10-5-3 23pts) @ Ottawa (7-10-1 15pts)