Capitals Pound Flyers 6-1
The Washington Capitals faced off with the Philadelphia Flyers for the matchup tonight. Similar to Sunday’s game against Boston, the Capitals poured it on offensively. The Capitals had six different goal scorers tonight, each recording a single goal. Another fantastic all around performance for the Capitals as they raked in another two points.
Washington exploded in the first period once again recording four goals. Conor Sheary started the goal scoring spree with his 11th of the season. Following Sheary’s goal, the Flyers struck back to tie it. Then, Tom Wilson added his eleventh of the year, this one on the power play to put the Caps back on top. The Capitals then were given another power play and Nicklas Backstrom bagged his 14th of the year putting them up 3-1. Just under two minutes later, Carl Hagelin scored his fifth goal of the year to extend the lead to 4-1.
After a high scoring first period, the second and third each only brought one goal. In the second, Anthony Mantha, in his Capitals debut, tallied his first goal as a Capital and his 12th goal of the year. Mantha became the 49th Capital to score on his debut. He recorded two points on the night, a goal and an assist. Then in the third, Alex Ovechkin scored his 22nd of the year, this one on the power play. The goal for Ovechkin was career number 728 and puts him four goals shy of passing Marcel Dionne for fifth on the all-time scoring list.
In net for the Capitals tonight was Ilya Samsonov. He was great in the crease for them saving 29 shots. With the win, Samsonov improved to 10-3-1 on the year. In front of Samsonov, is one of the best defenseman in the NHL, John Carlson. Carlson played in his 800th career game, becoming the eighth player in franchise history to accomplish the feat. To make the game even more special, Carlson recorded two assists and reached the 400th career assist mark as well.
The Capitals are now two points ahead of the Islanders for first place in the East. On Thursday (4/15) they matchup with the Sabres in DC.
