Samsonov makes 36 saves, Capitals defeat Flyers

PHILADELPHIA -- Ilya Samsonov made 36 saves for the Washington Capitals in a 3-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday.

"I thought he played a really strong game," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "I thought he had some really big saves, backdoor saves, saves that you hope your goaltender makes. But they are tough, and you know they are tough, but he made them all night. I thought he played a really good game."
Alex Ovechkin and Dmitry Orlov scored 4:33 apart in the second period for Washington (14-6-4), which has a point in seven of its past eight games (6-1-1).
Joel Farabee scored, and Carter Hart made 24 saves for Philadelphia (12-7-3), which was coming off a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.
"I liked the way we came out. We came out with good energy, making a lot of the right plays," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "We knew that they were going to have a push in the second period, they did. ... Guys competed and we'll regroup here, reenergize and get ready for the next game (against the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday)."

Ovechkin tied it 1-1 at 15:11 off a cross-slot pass from T.J. Oshie. The goal was his 714th, three behind Phil Esposito for sixth in NHL history, and his 363rd on the road, passing Steve Yzerman for second behind Wayne Gretzky (402).
Orlov put the Capitals ahead 2-1 with 16 seconds left in the period. Evgeny Kuznetsov won a face-off on the left side after the Flyers were called for icing, and the puck was worked around to John Carlson, who made a seam pass across to Orlov for a shot that beat Hart five-hole.
"It was a missed assignment off a face-off with their [defenseman] coming in backdoor that probably we should have been able to pick up," Vigneault said. "I think that was the game changer. Instead of going in after two periods with a tie game, we're one behind."

Nick Jensen extended the lead to 3-1 at 4:15 of the third period on a rush. It was his first goal since Oct. 11, 2018.
"It started with [Zdeno] Chara making a great defensive play on the blue line and then he took two guys out of the play with some physicality," Jensen said. "That allowed me to get up in the play and then from there, [Nicklas] Backstrom is a playmaker, he made plays and then just hit me wide open and I had it all day to take a shot."
Samsonov, who was making his second start since being on the NHL COVID-19 protocol list from Jan. 20-Feb. 7, made 15 saves in the third to preserve the victory.
"I thought he played great for us," Carlson said. "There was plenty of big saves that he made throughout the game when I thought we were working real hard, working good and kind of bringing it to them, and they would turn it around with one or two chances here or there and he was huge down the stretch for us."
Farabee gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 11:04 of the first period when he finished a 2-on-1 rush with James van Riemsdyk.
Philadelphia was 0-for-4 on the power play, including three chances between Farabee's goal and Ovechkin's goal in the second, and is 5-for-40 (12.5 percent) with the man-advantage in its past 10 games.
"We need to score one eventually and get the killer instinct of taking over the game," Flyers forward Sean Couturier said. "Power play, you can win games, and penalty kill, you can lose them, and right now we're losing that kind of battle, that aspect of the game."
NOTES:Washington played without forward Tom Wilson, who served the first of a seven-game suspension from the NHL Department of Player Safety for boarding Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo on Friday. ... The Flyers have lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since losing three straight from Dec. 31, 2019 to Jan. 4, 2020.