Wade Allison Helps Lead Flyers Past Capitals

The only hockey game played tonight in the East division, the Flyers took on the Capitals for the last time this season at the Capital One Arena. Cam York made his NHL debut tonight alongside Braun.

Starting in the Philly net was Brian Elliott and across from him was Vitek Vanecek, getting his first start against the Flyers. Also for the first time since being traded at the April 12th deadline, the Flyers faced against a former teammate in Michael Raffl.

The Flyers had lost five straight to the Capitals this season, never in history had they lost six, and tonight they were able to keep that going.

The opening frame featured no penalties for either side, which doesn’t happen often, especially for Philadelphia. Joel Farabee came in early with his 18th goal of the season and the first goal of the night. He took advantage of a defensive zone mishap and put Philly on the board 1:44 into the game. The goal ultimately ended up going off a Capitals’ player.

Daniel Sprong was close to tying it up for the Caps not long after, but the goal was ruled as a kick in and didn’t stand. With less than four minutes to go in the first, a turnover by Ivan Provorov did lead to Sprong finally being able to sail one behind Elliott. Nolan Patrick won the face off back but Provorov ended up passing it right to Anthony Mantha behind the net. He then found Sprong right in front.

Cam York looked impressive for his first NHL period. With his quick skating and clean zone exits, he created a takeaway and registered 11 shifts on the ice.

As soon as the second period started Sprong tripped up Provorov which led to the first penalty of the night. The Caps were able to keep the Flyers off the board, but not fror long. Wade Allison got the second goal of the night on a cross corner dump from Oskar Lindblom. He unleashed a lethal shot that sailed over the shoulder of Vanecek. He now has two goals in his last three games.

Cam York puts the Flyers on another powerplay when he was hooked by Dmitry Orlov. Nothing doing after that, it was then the Caps turn to head to the powerplay as Braun clashed with Wilson. With some of their top powerplay players out, Washington was also unable to make anything stick.

With less than six minutes left in the second, Allison put the Flyers up by two after backhanding a mid-air pass that was shot by Myers. Out of Allison’s now four goals this season, three of them are against the Capitals. In his last three games he has three goals and four points.

T.J. Oshie scored his 22nd goal of the season with 1:09 left in the second. He redirected a puck in front to cut the gap to one. There was some thought that it was hit with a high stick, but the team decided not to review it. It’s not often that the Flyers are up going into the third period, they are 9-0-2 when leading after the second, but managed to hold a lead going into the final frame.

There was a bit of a cat and mouse game in the third period with both teams looking for scoring opportunities. Elliott continued to stand tall as he faced a lot of chances from Washington, especially as the game wound down. There were hardly any whistles in the third as the play was high paced between the two teams.

Sean Couturier would eventually score an empty net goal to cement the win for Philadelphia with 30 seconds left on the clock.

With a 4-2 final, the Flyers kept the Capitals from reclaiming their first place spot in the east division. The orange and black outplayed the Capitals, who were without their captain Alex Ovechkin and defenseman Justin Schultz due to lower-body injuries, Evgeny Kuznetsov remained on NHL COVID protocol list as well as Ilya Samsonov. That gave rookie goaltender Vitek Vanecek his third consecutive start.

Wade Allison was a star player tonight. In just his 12th career NHL game, he has made himself known and has had crucial scoring opportunities for the Flyers.

The Flyers and Capitals face off for the eighth and final time this season on Saturday night, where Washington will look for a sixth victory against the Flyers.