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The Capitals rode the momentum of a huge second period to put the Flyers away two nights after being blanked by the Detroit Red Wings. Jason Chimera lead the way with two goals in the second period and Braden Holtby kept things tidy in Washington’s own end with 18 saves tonight.
First up, here’s Thursday night’s Plus/Minus:
- Plus: The second period was full of offense and puck possession, resulting in three goals in less than an eight minute span. Chimera put two of them past Steve Mason on the power play after Barry Trotz promoted him to the man advantage unit.
- Minus: Really hard to see Alex Ovechkin have history taken away from him again, but here we are. Poor Justin Williams.
Ten more notes on the game.
- The first goal of the game was scored less than four minutes into it, a wrist shot from Scott Laughton eluding Holtby and a heavy Ryan White screen. Things weren’t exactly looking bright early.
- Tonight’s game was Washington’s sixth consecutive contest where they allowed the first goal. Generally, and excluding tonight, success does not come to hockey teams that regularly play from behind.
- The Capitals responded at the game’s ten minute mark thanks to another patented Evgeny Kuznetsov reverse pass. It started behind Mason’s left shoulder and the quick pass allowed T.J. Oshie to snap one into the nearside of the net.
- Claude Giroux gave the Flyers their second lead of the game thanks to a carryover Tom Wilson penalty to start the second period. His wrist shot through traffic beat Holtby and bounced off the post and in.
- Chimera would respond to Giroux’s power play goal with one of his own thanks to some great hand eye coordination in the slot. Kuznetsov played volleyball with a Williams feed from the point and a fortuitous bounce found its way to Chimera’s forehand before quickly turning on the red light.
- Following on his secondary assist Williams tracked a loose puck in Mason’s blue paint and slammed home a goal for Washington’s first lead of the game which they would not relinquish.
- Chimera and Willams’ goals were tallied just 45 seconds apart, the second time this season Washington has tallied twice in a single minute. The first pair came from Nicklas Backstrom and Oshie at Calgary in October.
- A big second period was ended the same way it started, with the man advantage. Matt Niskanen fired a shot from the blue line which allowed Chimera to deflect it past Mason for his second of the night.
- Once again Ovechkin passed Sergei Fedorov for the all time Russian goal scoring lead but a challenge from Flyers’ head coach Dave Hakstol reversed the call. Williams’ left skate was not onside when Chimera came cruising over the blue line and the play should’ve been blown dead there.
- Backstrom would provide the game’s final goal thanks to a fine pass from Marcus Johansson and even finer forechecking from Wilson. A really impressive, high skill play from all three forwards.
Washington came into enemy territory and took it to a reeling Flyers squad behind a big second period push. Almost as impressive was the Capitals’ third period play, choking the life out of their opponent and their fans. The Capitals will need to bounce back quick as they head home to host the Calgary Flames tomorrow night.
Game highlights: