The Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals faced each other for the third time in the 2013-2014 NHL season, and the Philly finally came out victorious by a score of 5-2.
The game was played at the Wells Fargo center in Philadelphia, puck drop was at 7:30 p.m.
The first period ended with a score of 0-0; Philadelphia outshot Washington 10-9 but Washington got a late power play because of a high sticking from Kimmo Timonen on captain Alex Ovechkin. The Caps made the Flyers pay by scoring their first goal on the powerplay, 40 seconds into the second period on goalie Steve Mason.
Philadelphia came back with a goal from Jakub Voracek 58 seconds later on goalie Braden Holtby. The Flyers and Caps would then exchange two more goals with the game tied 2-2; the goals came from Eric Fehr, set up by Troy Brouwer and Matt Read for the home team.
Tom Wilson had a crucial penalty for charging, Brayden Schenn with less than five minutes remaining in the second period, giving the Flyers a 5 minute power play that ended up being harmful to the away team. Philly capitalized, scoring two goals and putting the Caps down 4-2 going into the third.
Junior Sarah Schertle was disappointed at the penalty.
“I thought it was a clean hit, Schenn started turning and, there wasn’t much Wilson could do,” said Schertle. “It was either hit him (Schenn) or slam into the boards himself, crappy calls by the refs.”
Once the penalty was up, the Capitals looked flat and exhausted, and it showed when Wayne Simmonds scored a fifth goal against his opponents with less than 13 minutes remaining in the third.
Holtby recorded 30/35 saves and ended his night with a loss and a save percentage of .857%, while Mason saved 24/26 shots for a save percentage of .923%.
Junior Kaleigh Krobot thought the Caps could have played better.
“The penalty hurt us,” said Krobot. “The game was tied, and we needed the two points [in the standings]. I think they just wanted to get revenge for last Sunday’s game [the caps rallied back in the third period from a three goal deficit to beat the flyers 5-4 in a shootout]. Overall they were just slow, nobody’s passes were on the tape, a bad game overall.”
Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL leading 28 goal of the season while Holtby let five goals get to the back of the net for the third time this season. Defenseman John Carlson and Karl Alzner ended the night with a team low -3 rating for the Caps.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux ended his night with a goal, his seventh of the season, while everyone on the team ended with an even or +1 rating for goals scored while they were on the ice.
Health and physical education teacher Doug Truscott was pleased with the rally the Flyers had during the second period.
“Caps messed up with a five-minute major penalty. We cashed in, and they didn’t fight back in the third. Great way to get two points,” said Truscott.
Washington stands second in the Metropolitan division with 39 points, 10 points behind the leading team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, while Philadelphia stands fourth in the division with 35 points, 14 behind the Penguins; however, it is important to remember the NHL regular season is less than halfway over so anybody could earn first place by the time April comes.
