The Washington Capitals defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3 at Wells Fargo Center. The win kept Washington hot while it kept Philadelphia cold as the Flyers have lost seven of their last eight games.
Matvei Michkov struck first at 17:31. Alex Ovechkin tied it with his 26th goal of the season at 19:07. Martin Fehervary and Dylan Strome set him up for their 12th and 37th assists respectively. 1-1 would be the score after one and shots were even at seven apiece. For Ovechkin, he's 16 away from catching Wayne Gretzky.
Connor McMichael gave the Caps a 2-1 lead for his 19th goal of the season. Aliaksei Protas and Jakob Chychrun had their 24th and 21st assists respectively and the goal came at 4:17.
The Flyers ignited a comeback after that. Tyson Foerster struck for his 15th of the season at 7:23 while the Flyers were on the power play. Matvei Michkov then scored his 16th goal of the season at 11:19.
Flyers led in shots 6-4 after two and had the 3-2 lead after two. Lars Eller would tie it off a feed from Taylor Raddysh at 6:23. At 12:05 Jakob Chychrun gave the Capitals the lead for good with his 14th of the season. John Carlson notched his 30th assist on the season while Raddysh notched his 16th.
4-3 would go on to be the final as Charlie Lindgren picked up the win in net with 19 saves off 22 shots. The Caps went 0 for 2 on the power play while the Flyers went 1 for 2. Flyers led in hits 25-9. The Caps had the edge in blocked shots 13-10. Flyers had 17 giveaways compared to the Capitals 14 while the Flyers had four takeaways compared to the Capitals two.
With the win it was Washington's league leading 18th comeback win of the season. Chychrun, who supplied the game winning goal, has 14 goals and are the most by a defenseman in his first season with the team as he surpassed Larry Murphy's mark in 1983-84.
The win improves the Capitals record to 36-11-7 for 79 points and the Caps now own the highest point percentage in the NHL at .731. With his goal tonight, Ovechkin tied Phil Esposito (1,590) for the 11th most points in NHL history. Lindgren improved his record to 12-9-3 on the season and earned his 50th career win as a member of the Caps.
Caps will be off on Friday but will practice at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at MedStar Captials Iceplex in preparation for Sunday afternoon's game against the Utah Hockey Club. Puck drop for that one is at 12:30 p.m. on Monumental Sports Network.