Caps Hold Off Flyers, 5-3

Nic Dowd scored a pair of vastly different goals on Thursday night in Philadelphia, and they ended up as the difference in Washington's 5-3 win over the Flyers, the Caps' third straight victory and their seventh in their last eight games.

Dowd's first goal came from in tight, giving the Caps a 4-1 lead late in the second period, a lead the Flyers whittled down to just a single goal by the middle of the third. With Philadelphia netminder Brian Elliott pulled for an extra attacker in the waning seconds of the contest, Dowd's second strike sealed the victory with one of the longest empty-netters you'll ever see.
From below his own goal line, Dowd whirled and lofted a hard wrist shot that bounced once and hopped straight into the middle of the vacant Flyers net, removing any remaining drama from the contest.

"We've been told that if we have an opportunity to shoot the puck from anywhere on the ice, let's just end it," says Dowd of Caps coach Peter Laviolette's 5-on-6 philosophy of closing out leads late in games. "Let's take a shot at the net and end it."
Dowd did exactly that with 27.4 seconds left on the clock, preventing the Flyers from mustering an equalizer in that span.
"I thought it was a really strong effort by our guys," says Laviolette. "Philly right now is on the outside [of the playoff picture]. We knew coming in here what type of game it was going to be; it was going to be tight, you were going to have to work for your space, and you were going to have to work for your chances. And there wasn't a lot of chances, I don't think we gave up more than six or seven chances at even strength, but we probably didn't create 10."
Washington started strong in the first, drawing a power play in the game's second minute and breaking the seal on the scoresheet before the midpoint of the first frame. Flyers goalie Brian Elliott tried to set up Ivan Provorov with a short outlet feed, but the pass went awry, and Caps captain Alex Ovechkin cranked a one-timer right back at Elliott and past him at 8:37 of the first for a 1-0 Washington lead.
Less than three minutes later, Philadelphia drew even on a power play. Ilya Samsonov made the stop on a Shayne Gostisbehere point drive, but Kevin Hayes bumped the rebound to Travis Konecny, who made it 1-1 with a one-timer from the slot at 11:14.
Washington retook the lead less than two minutes later. At the Washington line, Daniel Sprong collected an errant Philly feed and sprung Conor Sheary into Flyers' ice with a step on his pursuer. Sheary threaded a shot through Elliott's five-hole to make it a 2-1 game at 13:10.
"I think it was off a turnover," recounts Sheary. "Spronger made a nice play; the [Philly defenseman] pinched and the other [defenseman] was a little bit wide. I just got a mini-breakaway and tried to shoot far side. It obviously rolled in pretty slowly, but I'll take it."

In the second, the Caps padded their lead with a pair of goals. Evgeny Kuznetsov collected a misfired Philly centering pass in Washington ice, and took off on a 3-on-2 rush. He sent Jakub Vrana down the left-wing wall into the Flyers' zone, and Vrana carried down to the goal line before issuing a sublime backhand feed to the late arriving fourth guy in the zone, John Carlson, who scored at 6:58, recording his 500th career point and pushing the Caps' lead to 3-1.
"It was a breakout," says Carlson of his milestone tally. "I saw a bunch of guys had some speed, and I was just following it up. I think [Vrana] was probably going to have a little bit better chance for himself at first, but I think he fumbled it a little bit. [The Flyers] were looking at the other options, and he made a great play, threading it over to me."
Late in the middle period, the Caps extended their lead yet again when Dowd carried from his own blueline and into Philadelphia ice down the left-wing wall. As he reached the circle, Dowd began to cut toward the net with the puck on his backhand and a wall of four Philadelphia defenders converging on him. As he beat the first defender, the puck skidded off his stick, hit Gostisbehere's skate and caromed in for a 4-1 Caps lead at 17:32 of the second.
"I was able to get the puck to the net, but then lost the puck," says Dowd, "and it just took a fortunate bounce off their [defenseman's] skate and over Elliott's pad."

About a minute later, officials opted to send players to their respective dressing rooms while repairs were made to a glass panel; the final 1:29 of the second was played on a fresh sheet of ice before the two teams switched sides for the third period.
Provorov scored a 4-on-4 goal at 1:43 of the third to make it a 4-2 game, and Scott Laughton scored a rush goal at 10:15 to bring the Flyers within a goal. Two nights after they needed overtime to win at home against New Jersey after losing a 4-1 lead in the third, the Caps were in danger of authoring a sequel. But Washington killed off a bench minor for too many men and Dowd dialed long distance at 19:32 to give the Capitals their third straight triumph.
On a night when three of the teams ahead of them in the East Division standings also won, the Flyers fell further back from the pack with their loss to Washington.
"I was more concerned about our execution really, than our energy," says Flyers coach Alain Vigneault. "They're a team that, they put hard pressure, they play a real tight game, they make the lines real hard and in their zone they play man-on-man. And there are plays with the puck that you need to make in all three of those zones and unfortunately, in their end we made some costly mistakes that led to opportunities that they were able to put in the back of our net."