Down a goal heading into the third period on the road in Philadelphia on Thursday night, the Caps authored another in a series of comeback victories this season, bringing home two more points with a 4-3 win over the Flyers.
Lars Eller delivered the tying tally with his second goal in as many games, and Jakob Chychrun converted a world class pass from John Carlson on what would prove to be the game-winner. Although he needed to make only 19 saves on the night, the quality of the shots Charlie Lindgren had to face more than made up for the lack of volume. And once given that late lead, he made certain to secure it, as Washington netminders have almost routinely done all season.
“Without our best tonight, to be able to grind through that game, and dig in in the third period,” begins Caps coach Spencer Carbery, “it just once again speaks to the character of the group, of not rolling over and trying to get things together and support one another, and help each other, to try to find some positive momentum in the third period. And that’s what we did.”
The Caps relied heavily on Lindgren early in Thursday’s game. Before the first television timeout, Lindgren made two stops on Philly phenom Matvei Michkov, both of them from short range. Lindgren also made a strong pad stop on Cam York’s shot from the top of the paint early in the back half of the opening period.
At the opposite end of the ice, Ivan Fedotov didn’t face his first shot until the game was more than seven minutes old; that’s when he denied Tom Wilson on a breakaway.
Michkov eventually did break the seal on the scoresheet, beating Lindgren on a breakaway at 17:31 to stake the home team to a 1-0 lead.
In the final minute of the first, Alex Ovechkin drew the Caps even with goal No. 879 of his NHL career. Ovechkin started the scoring play with a defensive zone stop; he then hit Dylan Strome with a stretch feed at the Philly line. Strome left it for Martin Fehervary, who was coming into the zone with speed. From down low on the left side, Fehervary fed Ovechkin, who beat Fedotov from the inside of the right circle with 52.3 seconds remaining in the first.
Washington wasn’t able to take advantage of an early power play in the second period, but it briefly took the lead immediately after when Connor McMichael deftly deflected an Aliaksei Protas shot past Fedotov at 4:17.
Philly responded quickly, squaring the score at 2-2 on a power play goal from Tyson Foerster, who tipped home an Emil Andrae center point drive at 5:47, just 90 seconds after the McMichael marker.
Minutes later, the Caps were buzzing in the Philly zone, looking to jump back in front. But they lost control of the puck, enabling the Flyers to break out on an odd man rush that resulted in Michkov’s second goal of the night, a pretty tic-tac-toe tally that also involved Rodrigo Abols and Jamie Drysdale. Michkov’s goal put Philly on top at 11:19 of the second. Lindgren needed to make just one more stop – on Scott Laughton from in tight – over the rest of the middle period.
Early in the third period, Lindgren denied Michkov’s bid for a “Michigan” tally; he cradled the puck on his blade and attempted to sling it home on the short side, but Lindgren wasn’t having any.
About two minutes later, Eller delivered the equalizer to culminate a strong offensive zone shift. Taylor Raddysh gloved down a Philly clearing attempt near the offensive blueline and sent it to Eller, who ripped a shot past Fedotov on the far side, from just above the left circle. Eller’s 10th of the season made it a 3-3 game at 6:23.
Just after the midpoint of the third, Ethen Frank used his wheels to negate an icing and get a scoring chance, which resulted in a television timeout. Carbery came right back with that line, and it was a prudent decision. About half a minute later, the Caps had the lead.
When the puck came to Carlson at the right point, he spotted Chychrun with some space toward the bottom of the left circle, and he quickly snapped a sharp seam pass that way. From the dot, Chychrun beat Fedotov on the short side, putting the Caps on top by a goal at 12:05.
“Just a great pass from Carly,” marvels Chychrun. “I tried to make eye contact with him, had my stick up in the air; I waw letting him know I was open. But he had to thread it, and he sure did. Great play by him.”
After coming up with a huge third-period goal in Tuesday’s win over Florida, Eller’s line manufactured the tying and winning goals on Thursday in Philly.
“I thought Lars’ line was the difference tonight for us,” says Carbery. “They changed the momentum in the game. They score the goal, but they had some really, really positive shifts that got our guys [going], gave us momentum as a team, but also got guys up, positive, and started to hear some hooting and hollering on the bench and happy for them, so then they start to play a little bit better and get on their toes. That was a huge, pivotal moment.”
Lindgren delivered a couple more pivotal moments late to protect the lead, eventually ushering home his 50th victory in a Washington sweater. First, he denied Drysdale’s wrist shot from the slot with about five minutes remaining. In the game’s final couple of seconds, Lindgren sprawled out to prevent Foerster from a late tying goal, nailing down another Washington victory.
“Tonight was a was a weird one,” says Lindgren. “I just felt like we were fighting it a little bit. Maybe [the Flyers] did a good job of clogging the neutral zone. I felt like it was hard for us to get some [offensive] zone time tonight. But we're down 3-2 in the second intermission, and it's the same story the whole year, where we all come in and we're all looking at each other like we're going to find a way to get this done. And sure enough that's what we did.
“Obviously, I don't get a ton of rubber tonight, but sometimes the stat sheet doesn't tell the whole story. I thought I played a really good game. And I think they had some decent looks tonight. And I found a way to keep majority of them out of the net, and credit goes to the team in front of me. I thought we found ways to dig in and get blocks when we needed them, or get a stick on a puck. But yeah, 50 wins as a Cap, pretty cool. It's my third year here, and obviously it's been a really fun ride.”
