Four nights earlier, the Flyers were playing their sixth game in nine days, and they faded over the last two periods in a loss to Washington.
On Thursday, they were more rested, but it didn’t matter.
They looked sleepy in the first 40 minutes, woke up and got third-period goals from Ivan Provorov (18:17 left) and Scott Laughton (9:15 left) to trim a 4-1 deficit to 4-3, but couldn’t get the equalizer.
Washington got goals from Alex Ovechkin, Conor Sheary, John Carlson, and Nic Dowd (two) as it outlasted the Flyers, 5-3, at the Wells Fargo Center. Dowd’s second goal was an empty-netter.
The Flyers have lost four of their last six games and are fading in the East Division race.
Carlson, a high-scoring defenseman, was left unguarded as he joined the attack, took a feed from Jakub Vrana, and beat Brian Elliott from the left circle. That gave the Caps a 3-1 lead with 13:02 remaining in the second period. It was Carlson’s sixth goal of the season and 500th point of his career.
Dowd made it 4-1 with 2:27 left in the second as he went around Travis Sanheim and lost the puck but it caromed off Gostisbehere’s skate and into the net. (Earlier in the period, Gostisbehere probably saved a goal with a blocked shot.)
A mistake by Elliott and a flub by Provorov led to the game’s first goal, a right-circle blast by Ovechkin. It was his fourth goal in three games against the Flyers this season – and 38th in 60 career games vs. Philadelphia..
Elliott tried to clear the puck off the left-wing boards instead of giving it to one of his teammates near the net. The puck went to Provorov whose clearing attempt when to Ovechkin as he raced into the zone and scored on a wicked slap shot with 11:23 left in the first.
Less than three minutes later, the Flyers’ tied it on a power-play goal by Travis Konecny, who took a slick pass from Kevin Hayes and scored on a one-timer from the left side of the right circle. It was the seventh of the season for Konecny, who celebrated his 24th birthday Thursday.
But about two minutes after Konecny’s goal, Daniel Sprong sprung Sheary on a breakaway. Sheary got behind Sanheim and Erik Gustafsson and put a shot that trickled through Elliott’s legs and into the net.
The Flyers had seven giveaways in the first period – one that included Andy Andreoff’s slight decision over Washington’s Garnet Hathaway in a fight late in the stanza – and it seemed like most of them led to a Grade A chances for the Caps.
“We have to play a lot better,” Konecny said. “It was just sloppy and we have to clean it up.”
The Flyers have played 43% of their 56-game season. Before the game, coach Alain Vigneault was asked if he felt like the stretch drive was nearing.
“I thought we were in the stretch drive starting with the first game,” he said, a reference to the abbreviated season. “You look at our division and the quality of teams and the competition. [We knew] it was going to be a challenge, which we want.”
It was the first of back-to-back games against the second-place Capitals, who entered the night with a five-point lead over the fifth-place Flyers in the East Division, with Philadelphia having two games in hand.
The Caps beat the Flyers on Sunday, 3-1, at the Wells Fargo Center.
“They’re huge,” left winger Scott Laughton said before the game, referring to the next two matchups against the Capitals. “We’re chasing them right now. It doesn’t sit well with us, the last game. The schedule is no excuse. I thought we competed pretty hard in the first and then fell off. Excited to get back at it tonight for a full 60-minute game to try to make it a little harder on them for the last 40 minutes.”
That was the plan, but it didn’t happen, so the Flyers will try to regain their mojo Saturday. For the most part, that mojo has been missing since six regulars went on the COVID-19 list about a month ago.
Now healthy, it’s up to them to find it.
For 60 minutes, not 20.
