First Period
Washington got off to a good start in the first period. In the fourth minute, Alex Ovechkin tried to
feed the puck from low in the right wing circle to Tom Wilson low on the left
side. Claude Giroux, who was near the
end of a long shift, slid across and muffled the pass, but the puck slid out to
the top of the offensive zone, where Nick Jensen gathered it. Jensen backed off to the left point and sent
the puck toward the net, but Tom Wilson got the blade of his stick on it and
redirected it past goalie Brian Elliott to make it 1-0, 3:52 into the period.
The Caps enjoyed two power plays in the period, but they
failed to convert either of them. The
teams went to the first intermission with the Caps holding that one-goal lead.
-- The teams split 22 shots on goal down the middle, 11
apiece, but Philadelphia enjoyed a thin 16-15 edge in shots on goal, despite
the Caps having two power plays to the Flyers’ none. Alex Ovechkin led the Caps with three shots
on goal and four shot attempts. Brooks
Orpik was next with two shots on goal (tied with Evgeny Kuznetsov) and three
shot attempts.
-- The shot profiles were oddly different for each team, the
Caps with six even strength and five power play shots on goal, while
Philadelphia had 10 even strength shots and one shorthanded shot on goal.
-- The Caps’ power play went 0-for-2 in the period, bringing
their performance to 3-for-23 over their last seven games plus one period (13.0
percent).
Second Period
It took less than a minute for the Caps to take a penalty,
Alex Ovechkin sent off on a slashing call, and put the Flyers on a power
play. The Flyers managed one shot and
failed to convert, and the teams played on.
The Flyers started mounting pressure, but they could not
solve goalie Braden Holtby. The
opportunities lost came back to bite the Flyers just past the half way point of
the period. Andre Burakovsky hounded Sean
Couturier off the puck in the corner to the left of Elliott. The puck then worked
its way to Matt Niskanen at the right point.
His drive was redirected by Travis Boyd under the right arm of Elliott,
and it was 2-0, 10:47 into the period.
The Flyers got one back on a power play with less than three
minutes left in the period. Off a
scramble in front, Matt Niskanen tried to sweep the puck out of the low slot from
one knee and managed only to put it on the stick of Jakub Voracek. From the low right wing circle, Voracek
snapped a shot that beat Holtby through the pads to make it 2-1 at the 17:10
mark. That would be how the teams went
to the second intermission.
-- That probably qualified as one of the worst, if not the
worst, periods of the year for the Caps in terms of shot production. They were out-shot in the period, 20-7, but
they were out-attempted, 44-10.
-- The Caps had six players without a shot attempt through
two periods: Nick Jensen, Jakub Vrana, Lars Eller, Christian Djoos, John
Carlson, and T.J. Oshie.
-- Travis Boyd and Andre Burakovsky, arguably the best two
players for the Caps over the first 40 minutes, had a combined ice time of 12:02.
Third Period
The Caps took a penalty in the first minute of the second
period, and they took a penalty in the fourth minute of the third, a roughing
call to Brooks Orpik. It was the fourth straight
call against the Caps after they got the first two, back in the first
period. The Caps skated this one off to
make it three kills in four instances.
Washington took advantage of the Flyers’ inability to get a
puck deep into the offensive zone in the ninth minute. Philippe Myers was the Flyer who failed to
get the puck in deep, and it ended up on the stick of Brett Connolly. From the defensive blue line, Connolly sent
the puck into space in the neutral zone, and Jakub Vrana skated it down before
going offside. He broke in on Elliott
and snapped a shot under his right pad to make it 3-1, 8:07 into the period.
Vrana almost made it 2-for-2 in breakaways, but his attempt
that beat Elliott chipped the outside of the post with just over six minutes
left.
The Caps had chances with an empty net late, but could not
convert, skating off at game’s end with a 3-1 win and a 4-0-0 sweep of the
season series with the Flyers.
Other stuff…
-- This was the second time in the history of this rivalry
that the Caps swept the Flyers. The first
time was in 2006-2007.
-- Washington was out-shot, 36-30, for the game, but they
did narrow the deficit in the third period, out-shooting the Flyers, 12-5.
-- The Caps were out-attempted, 74-47, but again, they
narrowed the gap in the third period, out-attempting the Flyers, 22-14.
-- Travis Boyd snapped a 25-game streak without a goal. Until he scored against the Flyers, he had
not scored since he got one in a 3-2 win in Detroit over the Red Wings on
January 6th. It was his first
goal on home ice since December 11th, also against Detroit, in a 6-2
win.
-- The Caps had goals from three different players and one
point apiece from eight different players.
-- Tom Wilson gets the buffet coupon. In 19:44 of ice time, he had a goal, a
penalty, three shots on goal, five shot attempts, five hits (led the team), a
giveaway, a takeaway, and won his only faceoff.
Guess that whole James van Riemsdyk submarining his legs in the first
period didn’t quite work out as planned.
-- Nick Jensen… plus-2, five blocked shots, two hits, three
shot attempts, and an assist in 20:45.
Just a solid, solid game.
-- Alex Ovechkin has only two goals in his last seven games
as he continues to pursue a 50-goal season, but he has points in six of those
games, including an assist in this one (2-5-7).
-- Braden Holtby was the story with 35 saves on 36 shots,
including 30 saves on 31 shots over the first 40 minutes. It was the 18th game this season
in which he faced more than 35 shots. He
is 8-7-3 in those games, and this was the third instance among those games in
which he held an opponent to one goal.
-- At no point this season did the Caps ever trail the Flyers.
In the end…
The Capitals extended their lead in the Metropolitan
Division to three points, and they probably ended the flickering playoff hopes
for the Flyers, who find themselves seven points behind Montreal for the last
playoff spot with six games to play.
And, they would have to climb over the Columbus Blue Jackets as well as
the Canadiens.
That said, it was not a particularly good game for the
Caps. Winning is the object, and the
Caps fulfilled that objective, but truth be told, this probably captures the
quality of the contest…
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