Early short-handed goals doom Philadelphia Flyers in loss to Washington Capitals
Nic Dowd and Andrew Mangiapane scored short-handed goals in the first period, Charlie Lindgren made 17 saves and the Washington Capitals won their fourth straight game since losing the opener with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.
Alex Ovechkin went scoreless one game after pulling within 40 goals of Wayne Gretzky's all-time record for goals. Ovechkin, playing in his 1,431st game, is still sitting on 854 career goals. Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson also tallied goals for the Capitals.
Travis Sanheim scored for Philadelphia, which lost its fifth straight. The Flyers were shut out 3-0 in their home opener on Saturday and went scoreless in the first two periods.
Dowd scored on a backhander, shooting high over Sam Ersson, just 3:49 into the contest. Mangiapane's wrister on Philadelphia's power play made it a two-goal game with 4:53 left in the first. After Sanheim pulled Philadelphia within 2-1 just 34 seconds into the third, Carlson answered for Washington 64 seconds later.
Capitals: Tom Wilson cooled after scoring in each of the first four Washington games but Washington continued its early season surge.
Flyers: Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov, the No. 7 pick in the 2023 draft, matched up for the first time against fellow Russian Ovechkin, who is one of his idols. Michkov had an assist on Sanheim's tally.
Dylan McIlrath and Nic Deslauriers squared off in a heavyweight battle 4 1/2 minutes into the game. Both players landed big blows, with Deslauriers sustaining a cut under his left eye and McIlrath heading to the locker room after the fight.
Dylan Strome, who led the Capitals with 67 points last season, has points in every game this season after assisting Carlson's tally. He has three goals and five assists.
The teams complete the home-and-home in Washington on Wednesday night.