Philadelphia Flyers Bounce Back, Take Down Washington Capitals, 4-2

This one came as advertised. The Washington Capitals entered Tuesday's game against the Philadelphia Flyers on the heels of a dominating win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday—the same team that had squeaked out a win over the Flyers the day before.

The Caps also held home ice advantage, undoubtedly, one of the biggest reasons for their success this season. They entered Tuesday with just 5 regulation losses at the Verizon Center.

The Flyers faced a tall task in defending the likes of Alexander Ovechkin without Philly's top defenseman Kimmo Timonen, who was shelved due to yet another case of the flu.

It looked like this one could get ugly early when the Capitals scored just four seconds into a power play. Credit Nicklas Backstrom for getting open to receive a perfect pass from Ovechkin, but the Flyers were obviously out of position and not prepared for this set face-off play.

A side note: The assist was Ovechkin's first point against the Flyers this season. He had been stifled in the first two meetings.

The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Capitals at the end of the first. At this point in the game, it seemed that goals would be at a premium. Washington squandered a chance to put Philadelphia in a big hole by not scoring with nearly a minute of 5-on-3 power play time. Jose Theodore and Antero Niittymaki made save after save, turning away a combined 20 in the first frame.

Ovechkin worked his magic in the second, capitalizing on a Jeff Carter turnover to make the score 2-0 Capitals. He made it look easy, but this was no easy goal. In a split-second, Ovechkin had enough time to take the puck from his backhand to his forehand and wrist it past Niittymaki.

The Flyers would capitalize later in the period on a 5-on-3, as Claude Giroux put one in from down low to make the score 2-1 heading into the third.

As expected, the bodies were flying. Everyone was checking as there were a total of 17 penalties called. It is rather surprising to note, however, there were no fights. For the most part, it appeared the physical play was about equal.

No one was really imposing their will on anyone else, and except for the score, the game was about even.

Throughout the season, the Flyers have shown that they are a third period team, and tonight was no different. It took nearly half of the final stanza, but Scott Hartnell was finally able to tie the score at 2-2 with a wrister.

Just 1:25 later, Carter picked up a rebound off Theodore and found the net for the go-ahead goal.

Two minutes passed before Aaron Asham, the fourth-line goal scoring powerhouse (yea right) made an uncharacteristically beautiful weave between two Capitals defenders and flipped one up high past Theodore for the game's final tally.

Flyers 4, Capitals 2.

As has been the style of late, Philadelphia rode its momentum and scored goals in bunches to effectively take over this game.

Give the Capitals credit though, they played their game. They were physical. They created a good amount of scoring chances, and had they not met with Niittymaki who stood on his head and stopped 33 of 35 shots, they win this game.

Give the Flyers credit as well. The services of a defenseman of Timonen's caliber are often forgotten until they're gone, and unless someone steps up to take his place, it's going to be a long night.

I was especially impressed with the play of Matt Carle, who lead the Flyers defense in ice time. He was a puck hawk tonight, and never quit on any play. None of this will show up on the score sheet, but his play put the team in a good position to win.

At this time of the year, you need players like this every game.

Notes

• The Capitals will get one more chance at the Flyers on March 12 in Philadelphia. The Flyers have now gained at least a point in all three meetings between the clubs this season, and hold a 2-0-1 advantage in the season series.
• Jeff Carter and Braydon Coburn have scored at least a point in all three games against the Capitals this season.
• The three stars of the game were—1. Jeff Carter, 2. Scott Hartnell and 3. Antero Niitymaki. In the first meeting of the season between these teams, the three stars were the same, but in reverse order.