Alex Ovechkin scored twice, Braden Holtby had 31 saves and the Washington Capitals moved one game closer to a sweep in their first-round National Hockey League playoff series with a 6-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night.
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Before the game, Kimmo Timonen recalled his greatest Flyers memory, the game he will carry with him until his final days.
Fans shouldn’t be anxious, as the team pulled off surprising magic before.
The Capitals scored 6 unanswered goals, including going 5-9 on the power play to rout the home Flyers and drive the fans from the stands.
There will not be a video tribute to that moment, though it’s been played and re-played all over television and the interwebs, and certainly within the webbed confines of Mason’s memory. Mason has given up 12 goals in his last three games. “Yeah, it’s a crap goal”.
“I just thought it wasn’t good for the game”. One that… well, put it this way: Mason might get an invite to a black-tie dinner (entourage optional) in Los Angeles the night of the ESPYs. He was credited with an assist on Kuznetsov’s third period goal. Or maybe he could find a way to draw inspiration from it because of the way his teammates have reacted…?
If anything, the Flyers need to play with even more structure and discipline to counteract Washington’s firepower. “But at the end of the day things like that can’t happen”. But we’re a no-excuse team. Obviously, it wasn’t my intention of letting that goal in. What they got instead was an embarrassing loss and an 0-3 series deficit.
“It’s a big family here”, he added.
Snider, chairman of the Flyers parent company, Comcast-Spectacor, was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988. After all, win together and they can at least walk proudly into Game 4 Wednesday. But we’re playing for Mr. Snider here.
“It’s just execution I think. We’ve got to dig in and get some bounces at home”. We know we have. We’ve made some mistakes here and there, and they’ve capitalized on those mistakes that we make.
Shea Weber and Mattias Ekholm also scored as the Predators took a 2-0 playoff series lead for the first time in franchise history with another win over the Pacific Division champions. Washington scored two late power-play goals, one of them after disgruntled fans littered the ice with wristbands that were given out before the game and a minor penalty was assessed to the Flyers for delay of game. So Philadelphia knew that they had to step it up offensively to try and take something from Game 2. We tried to handle it, and I think we managed it and we scored on the power play. “You’ve got [Nick Schultz] standing there taking one-timer after one-timer after one-timer off different body parts”. But the post held steady, and the Flyers would have just twenty minutes to avoid a massive three-games-to-none hole in the series. That wasn’t so curious since select junior prospects or AHL callups can become “practice-only players” during playoffs.
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Play went back and forth in the second period but once again Alexander Ovechkin made his presence felt for what turned out to be the winning goal. Jason Chimera got the other goal, while Marcus Johansson had two assists. McDonald (14 goals, 32 points with the Phantoms), who is playoff-eligible, could be used to perhaps combat that.
