A change in goaltenders, some special teams success and a pair of goals from defensemen ignited Philadelphia to a 2-1 win over the Washington Capitals at Wells Fargo Center Wednesday night, helping the Flyers stave off elimination. With 3:49 left, Flyers forward Scott Laughton, after what appeared to be incidental contact with Washington defenseman John Carlson, lost his footing and went crashing hard into the boards behind the Washington net.
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Anyhow, he went back first into the boards.
Taylor Chorney played in 55 games for the Washington Capitals, but he dressed only 10 times in the final eight weeks of the regular season.
Be Civil – It’s OK to have a difference in opinion but there’s no need to be a jerk.
“We talked about it: Let’s have some fun and enjoy the moment”.
“I saw kind of when he was battling with Carlson there”, Holtby said. In the second period, he denied smothered forward Evgeny Kuznetsov’s tap-in attempt at close range, then gobbled up Alex Ovechkin’s wrister on the power play.
The series moves back to Washington where the Capitals will have another go at closing out the series.
“I felt a little rusty early in the game, but the guys did such a good job in front of me”, Neuvirth said after. “We’ve gotten a lot of bounces and they really weren’t going our way”.
“Obviously you want to kick a team when they’re down, for sure”, Jason Chimera said.
The ending left fans upset, with many throwing debris onto the ice and leading referees to call a minor penalty on the Flyers.
Will the Capitals sweep a Stanley Cup playoff series for the first time in franchise history?
Philadelphia has scored just two goals through the first three games of the series.
Neuvirth, drafted by Washington in 2006 and a member of the organization until he was traded to Buffalo in 2014, demonstrated his worth in the third period when he made 12 of his 31 saves. That’s when I knew this was much more serious than I, or anyone realized.
“It was nice to get that power play early”, Schenn said, “and give us some confidence”. In his first game of the series for the Stars, Antti Niemi had 28 saves.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Gostisbehere became the youngest Flyers defensemen to score a playoff goal since May 16, 1997, when Janne Niinimaa scored at 21 years old.
The Panthers got their first playoff road win since April 17, 2012, against New Jersey in Game 3 of the first round.
“You could see it this morning, he was excited to have the opportunity to get in there”, Hakstol said. No Flyer player has more than a single point in the series, which isn’t good considering even Braden Holtby notched an assist the other night.
It’s on to a second attempt at clinching, and the Capitals know a 3-1 lead is far from safe after dropping the last three games of their conference semifinal series with the New York Rangers last season.
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A flawless game by Neuvirth continued in the second, despite going shorthanded on two powerplay kills – Sam Gagner Interference and Jakub Voracek Holding.
