The Philadelphia Flyers lost 3-1 to the Washington Capitals Sunday night at the Wells Fargo Center. In-front of about 3000 fans.
The Flyers came out roaring in their first game back with fans at the Wells Fargo Center. Firing 9 of the first 10 shots on net. Which would lead to the first goal.
Joel Farabee would give the Flyers a 1-0 lead with 8:56 left in the 1st period. A great defensive play by Sean Couturier would spring Farabee & James van Riemsdyk in on a 2v1. Farabee would “shooooooot” & score to give the Flyers the lead.
Both the Flyers & Capitals would have their chances over the final 8-minutes of the 1st period. However, the goalies would be the stars of the show. Stopping all 11-shots they faced.
It would be all Capitals in the 2nd period.
After a slew of penalties, the Capitals would tie the game. Alex Ovechkin would slam home a one-timer off an impressive individual play by TJ Oshie. Who broke two Flyers ankles at the line & found a wide-open Ovechkin with a cross-ice feed for the goal.
With 23.2 left, James van Riemsdyk & Nick Jensen would both touch the puck before the end-line. But, somehow, the linesman would call it icing. Which did not go over well with the Philadelphia faithful & head coach Alain Vigneault.
Then, on the ensuring face-off, Dmitry Orlov would give the Capitals the lead with 15.8 left in the 2nd. Which got a reaction out of captain Claude Giroux. Who jumped immediately off the bench and got in the ear of Wes McCauley at center ice.
The referee’s would gift the Capitals another goal 4:15 into the 3rd period.
Zdeno Chara would get away with a two-handed punch as he went to check Joel Farabee in center ice. This would lead to James van Riemsdyk sticking up for Farabee. Who was then held against the boards in-front of the Capitals bench. All of this came right in-front of Wes McCauley to NO CALL.
As all of that was happening, the Capitals would go in on a 4v3. Nick Jensen would be left wide open & beat Carter Hart to the far post.
The Flyers would try to come back. Firing 15-shots in the 3rd period at Ilya Samsonov. But, Samsonov stopped all 15.
Carter Hart stopped 24 of the 27 shots he faced in the losing effort.
Loose Pucks…
– Joel Farabee scored his 9th goal in his last 12-games in the 1st period. Farabee now has 11-goals in 21-games in his sophomore season. Three more than Farabee scored in 52-games in his rookie season.
– After taking it to the well-rested Capitals in the 1st, the Flyers had a 2nd period to forget. Failing to do the little things they did so well in the 1st period. A similar let down to the 3rd period in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
– The Flyers ended their tough 6-game in 9-day stretch tonight with a loss to the Capitals. After winning three of the first four, two bad periods costed the Flyers a chance at more. Ending their tough stretch 3-3-0 & on a 2-game losing streak.
– Phil Myers returned to the lineup after missing Saturday’s game due to injury. Myers took a late hit from Penguins Anthony Angello late in the 2nd period on Thursday & played only one shift in the 3rd.
– Michael Raffl missed tonight’s game due to injury. Raffl blocked a shot with his right hand on his only shift of the 3rd period on Saturday vs the Penguins. Head coach Alain Vigneault said pregame “Raffy is dealing with a couple of issues right now.”
Result : Flyers 1 – Capitals 3 , LOSS
Record : 12 – 7 – 3
Next Game : 3/9 Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia PA, 7:00pm
Photo Credit : Tim Nwachukwu – Getty Images
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