Ovechkin, Capitals beat Flyers in fans’ return in Philly
PHILADELPHIA » Alex Ovechkin, Dmitry Orlov and Nick Jensen scored to lead the Washington Capitals to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night.
T.J. Oshie had two assists and Ilya Samsonov stopped 36 shots for the Capitals, who have won eight of 11. Washington was without forward Tom Wilson, who served the first game of a seven-game suspension for Friday’s hit on Boston defenseman Brandon Carlo.
Joel Farabee scored for Philadelphia, which lost its second straight and finished 3-3 during a grueling nineday, six-game stretch.
The Flyers welcomed back about 3,000 fans to their home arena for the first time since last March 10. Their early eager cheers turned into disappointing boos at the end.
Farabee got the home crowd excited with his teamleading 11th goal to give Philadelphia
a 1-0 lead with just under nine minutes left in the first period.
But Washington scored twice in the final 4:49 of the second to take a one-goal advantage into the third. Ovechkin tied it with his eighth of the season, finishing a cross-ice pass from Oshie by going high over Carter Hart.
Orlov put the Capitals ahead with 15.8 ticks left in the period in a similar fashion. John Carlson’s pass across the ice found Orlov, whose shot went
Hart’s legs.
Jensen’s first of the season, a hard wrist shot over Hart’s right shoulder, 4:15 into the third gave the Capitals a twogoal advantage and brought on displeasure from the fans.
They had a lot to cheer about early, though.
Farabee opened the scoring when he took the shot himself on a 2-on-1 with James van Riemsdyk, beating Samsonov through the legs. He waved his hands toward the crowd, calling
through for more noise. And they obliged with loud cheers that sounded closer to a half-full building rather than one at about 15 percent capacity.
Flyers fans chanted “Let’s Go Flyers! Let’s Go Flyers!” early in the contest, something you could hear with just an artificial soundtrack up to this point this season. They loudly booed and directed catcalls at the officials after Travis Konecny was whistled for goaltender interference in the first period.
RALEIGH, N.C. » Vincent Trocheck and James Reimer continued to torment their former team, lifting the Carolina Hurricanes to their fifth straight victory with a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Sunday night.
Trocheck, who was traded to Carolina just over a year ago, scored for the fourth time this season against the Panthers. Nino Niederreiter, Sebastian Aho and Warren Foegele also had goals for the Hurricanes, who have won eight of 10 home games (8-1-1) this season.
Reimer, who made
21 saves, came to Carolina less two years in ago in a trade from Florida. He’s 3-0-0 since then against the Panthers.
MacKenzie Weegar and Mason Marchment scored for Florida, which had a five-game points streak snapped. Chris Dreidger made 22 saves for the Panthers.
ISLANDERS 5, SABRES 2» Anders Lee and Brock Nelson scored 62 seconds apart early in the second period and rookie Ilya Sorokin made 24 saves as the Islanders earned their fifth straight win.
The victory was also the
Islanders’ sixth straight over the Sabres this season.
Casey Cizikas increased the lead to 3-0 at 16:56 with his fourth goal. Cal Clutterbuck, who also scored in Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Sabres, added his third of the season. Nelson scored his second of the game and ninth of the season into an empty net to complete the scoring.
Sorokin, the 25-yearold netminder, earned his fourth win of the season as the Islanders improved to
10-0-2 at Nassau Coliseum. Jeff Skinner’s goal at 5:41 of the third period ruined his shutout bid.
Colin Miller also scored for the Sabres, who are
2-10-1 since a forced twoweek delay in their season during early February because of COVID-19 protocols.
LIGHTNING 6, BLACKHAWKS
3» Yanni Gourde, Ondrej Palat and Victor Hedman each scored a power-play goal in the second period, helping Tampa Bay win.
Pat Maroon added his
100th career goal in the third period, giving Tampa Bay a season-high four goals with the man advantage. Gourde finished with two goals and two assists, and Alex Killorn scored for the third straight game.
The Lightning improved to 3-0-1 on their season-long six-game trip and stretched their point streak to a season-high eight games. They took two of three in the series between Central Division contenders.
Mattias Janmark had a goal and an assist for the Blackhawks. Philipp Kurashev and Pius Suter also scored.
DEVILS 1, BRUINS 0 » Scott Wedgewood made 40 saves, Kyle Palmieri scored out of a scramble with 4:37 left and the Devils snapped a fivegame losing streak.
Boston’s Tuukka
Rask made 24 saves and remained stuck at 299 career victories. The Bruins have lost four of six games.
All four games between the teams have been decided by one goal, including one in overtime and another by a shootout.
Palmieri scored about two minutes after Wedgewood robbed Craig Smith’s bid at the end of a Bruins’ power play. Boston pulled Rask and had the puck in the Devils’ zone for nearly all of the final 90 seconds, but Wedgewood blocked several good chances to preserve his fourth career shutout.