All it took was a little discipline. The Capitals defeated the Flyers, 6-1.
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The Flyers stayed out of the box until 5:29 left in the second period when Sam Gagner was whistled for interference.
The birthday boy, who turned 23 Wednesday, recorded his first of likely many Stanley Cup playoff goals when he blasted a power-play point shot past Capitals goalie Braden Holtby to open the game’s scoring for the Flyers 5:51 into their eventual 2-1 victory that staved off elimination and forced a Game 5 on Friday night in Washington, D.C. (see game story). The Washington Capitals are averaging three goals per game and are scoring on 21.9 percent of their power plays.
It’s a tall task for the Flyers, and it’s probably asking too much of a team competing against the Presidents’ Trophy victor. “You never know. We’re never going to turn down a 2-0 lead early in the game, but it could’ve had an outcome on the way that we played”.
With a 3-0 series lead in hand for the first time in franchise history, and riding high after a dominant win in Game 3, the Washington Capitals came out flat again in the opening stages of a game in this best-of-seven series.
“It’s been tough losing Smitty, but we have a lot of really good players that can step up and have done a pretty good job trying to match the lines (Tuesday) with missing a forward”, linemate Filip Forsberg told the team’s website on Wednesday.
In a scary moment in Philadelphia, Flyers player Scott Laughton was upended and fell awkwardly into the boards behind the net.
With 3 minutes, 49 seconds left in the first period and the Flyers leading 1-0, Laughton was racing for the puck in the offensive zone with Capitals defenseman John Carlson.
Laughton was to be kept at Jefferson overnight for precautionary reasons, according to a statement from the team.
However, forward Wayne Simmonds said the expectation was Laughton would be released from hospital Thursday.
The man they call “Ghost” has been an igniter for the Flyers’ offense since his call-up in November. “We need to get the four”, coach Barry Trotz said.
Neuvirth has played only one game (a 5-2 win over the Islanders at Brooklyn on April 10) since suffering a lower-body injury in mid-March.
Days of rest, a chance for Brooks Orpik and others to heal, awaited if the Presidents’ Trophy winners became the first to punch their ticket to the second round.
“It was huge, ” Simmonds said. “So we’re going to go into Game 5 and try to take care of business”. “We had a meeting this morning and talked about it. And it was nice to get that power-play goal early and give us confidence”. “We were ready for them”. The 36th overall draft pick in 2014, Demko was 27-8-4 with a. 935 save percentage as a junior for the Eagles this season. The Flyers organization honored him before the game with a memorial of all his good work. I love playing in the playoffs. Their No. 1 power-play unit should succeed, could succeed, would succeed.
He admitted he felt a little rusty at the start of the game, but he was able to settle in and produce a big third-period performance. “That was our goal. We didn’t take any stupid penalties”.
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Brayden Schenn appreciated what Neuvirth’s acrobatics meant in this game. “Just really happy with the effort tonight”.
