Ovechkin scores two in Capitals win against Flyers

PHILADELPHIA --Alex Ovechkin scored twice for the Washington Capitals in a 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center on Wednesday.

Ovechkin's empty-net goals at 18:25 and 19:51 of the third period closed the scoring. The forward has 795 NHL goals and ranks third behind Wayne Gretzky (894) and Gordie Howe (801).
"You watch him every night and how hard he plays, how much he cares," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. "That's what you don't see sometimes. You see it because you watch him when he's on the ice and you see his passion on the ice. ... He loves the game and he loves coming to the rink and he plays hard every day, he practices hard every day. And it's been great to be a part of it to this point."
The two goals also gave Ovechkin 499 at even strength, leaving him one from becoming the fourth player to get 500. He'd join Gretzky (617), Howe (566) and Jaromir Jagr (538).
"It's crazy for us to see it first-hand and just kind of know what's happening and what's building or around this thing," Washington defenseman John Carlson said. "It's special to see. Maybe we take it a little bit for granted because every single goal, every single game, every year, it's something big, a new milestone. ... It's incredible stuff. I think we maybe get a little numb to it, but it certainly doesn't take away from the impact he's had on the game."

Dylan Strome had the go-ahead goal and an assist, Carlson had two assists, and T.J. Oshie scored for the Capitals (12-12-4). Charlie Lindgren made 29 saves, including 15 in the third period.
Kevin Hayes scored, and Carter Hart made 23 saves for the Flyers (9-13-5).
"It gets frustrating when you play two great periods and kill off a bunch of penalties (3-for-4 on the penalty kill) and you're still tied, and then all of a sudden you're down one, and with the empty-netters it looks a lot worse," Hayes said. "I don't want to say we have to play a perfect game ... but we have to be better structurally than the other team to win."
Hayes gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 15:46 of the first period. The forward broke his stick taking a shot, but got a new one from the bench and was able to return to the play. He got to the rebound of a Travis Konecny shot, skated into the high slot and beat Lindgren through a screen.

Oshie tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 3:51 of the second period, one-timing a pass into the slot by Strome.
Strome put the Capitals ahead 2-1 at 9:19 of the third. Capitals defenseman Erik Gustafsson held a clearing attempt in at the left point and passed across the ice to Carlson. Strome, skating through the slot, tipped Carlson's shot past Hart.
Carlson said he was aiming for Strome's stick rather than trying to score.
"That's kind of a useless shot from where I was," he said. "Instead of wasting the puck, making the forwards try to go and dig it back out and start something, if I can make something blow up, make something tip off someone. 'Stromer' made a nice tip on that one. But if it just hits off someone's pants and bounces, maybe it goes in. Just different stuff like that to try to create stuff."

The Flyers pulled Hart with 2:14 remaining in the third and had four shots on goal with the extra attacker, but lost for the 13th time in their past 15 games (2-10-3).
"We're tired of losing," Konecny said. "We say it every time we come off, there's positives. We work our [tails] off every night. We work so hard and there's a lot of credit to be given out. But we hate losing and I'm just tired of looking at the positives all the time."
NOTES:Ovechkin had his 405th multipoint game, passing Ray Bourque for 13th in NHL history. The only active player with more is Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (430). ... Ovechkin has 51 empty-net goals, ranking second behind Gretzky (56). ... Konecny (assist) has four points (three goals, one assist) during a four-game point streak. ... Philadelphia forward James van Riemsdyk had two shots on goal in 12:47 of ice time in his return after missing 20 games because of a fractured left index finger. ... It was the Flyers' first loss (3-1-0) when leading after the first period and the Capitals' first win (1-6-2) when trailing after the first.