Capitals 4-1 Flyers (Oct. 22, 2024) Game Recap

PHILADELPHIA – Nic Dowd and Andrew Mangiapane scored short-handed goals in the first half, Charlie Lindgren made 17 saves and the Washington Capitals won their fourth straight game since losing their opening game with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

Alex Ovechkin went scoreless in one game after moving to within 40 goals of Wayne Gretzky's scoring record. Ovechkin scored in his 1,431st. Game still scored 854 goals in his career. Jakob Chychrun and John Carlson also scored goals for the Capitals.

Travis Sanheim scored for Philadelphia, which lost for the fifth straight season. The Flyers lost 3-0 in their home opener on Saturday and remained scoreless in the first two periods.

Dowd scored with a backhander and shot high over Sam Ersson after just 3:49 minutes. Mangiapane's wrister on Philadelphia's power play made it two goals with 4:53 left in the first. After Sanheim gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead just 34 seconds into the third period, Carlson answered for Washington 64 seconds later.

Takeaways

Capitals: Tom Wilson cooled off after scoring in each of Washington's first four games, but Washington continued its early season surge.

Flyers: Flyers rookie Matvei Michkov, the No. 7 pick in the 2023 draft, faced fellow Russian Ovechkin, who is one of his idols, for the first time. Michkov had an assist on Sanheim's tally.

Key moment

Dylan McIlrath and Nic Deslauriers engaged in a heavyweight bout 4 1/2 minutes into the game. Both players landed heavy blows, with Deslauriers suffering a cut under his left eye and McIlrath heading to the locker room after the fight.

Key statistics

Dylan Strome, who led the Capitals with 67 points last season, has points in every game this season after matching Carlson's assist tally. He has three goals and five assists.

Next

The teams play their home game in Washington on Wednesday evening.

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