Washington Capitals crush Flyers

Call it an orange crush, if you will. The Washington Capitals have scored 14 goals over their past two games and their latest game was a 6-1 beatdown over the Philadelphia Flyers in the penultimate game without fans in Capital One Arena.

At 7:07 the Caps struck first with nice gliding snipe from Conor Sheary for his 11th goal of the season. Daniel Sprong had the feed in front of the net while Lars Eller had the secondary assist.

The Flyers would tie the game at 8:45 on a goal from Sean Couturier. That would be the closest the Flyers would ever get in this game.

The Caps got a power play opportunity and cashed in with a snap shot from Tom Wilson off a nice set up from Sheary at 11:32. New guy Anthony Mantha had the secondary assist for his first point as a Capital. The Caps acquired him at the trade deadline in exchange for Jakub Vrana, Richard Panik and draft picks.

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The Caps got another power play chance and scored thanks to Nicklas Backstrom. Alex Ovechkin set him up from his office cross ice to the other side to the right face off circle where Backstrom banged it in for his 14th goal of the season. John Carlson had the secondary assist and the goal came at 16:25.

At 18:21 the Caps made it 4-1 with Dmitry Orlov getting the puck to Carlson who found Carl Hagelin right in front of the net. It was Hagelin’s fifth goal of the season.

4-1 was the score after the opening period with the Caps leading in shots 19-9.

At 9:22 in the second, Mantha scored his first goal as a Cap. Mantha ripped a hard and lethal shot to join the scoring party. His shot went in the top corner. T.J. Oshie and Backstrom had the helpers.

5-1 was the score after 40 minutes. The Caps led in shots 7-6 in the middle stanza.

The Caps scored on the power play in the third period at 5:10 from who else but Ovechkin to cap off a perfect three for three night on the man advantage. Ovechkin ripped it right from his office for his 22nd of the season and 728th of his career. Ovechkin is now three away from passing Marcel Dionne for fifth all time.

The Caps would cruise to a 6-1 win. Ilya Samsonov got the start in goal and made 29 saves. He also had a 15 save effort in the third period as the Flyers outshot the Caps 15-6. The Caps would finish with the edge in shots 32-30.

The Caps will play one last home game without fans on Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres at 7 p.m.