Capitals 5 - 2 Flyers
Final
  for this game

Caps stay perfect with win over Flyers

Oct 21, 2011 - 2:55 AM Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of goals as the red-hot Washington Capitals continued their historic start to the season with a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Mathieu Perreault had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who have started the season with six straight wins for the first time in franchise history. Roman Hamrlik and Joel Ward also lit the lamp.

Tomas Vokoun made 40 saves to improve to 5-0-0 in his first season with Washington.

"Well, we knew it was going to be a hard game for us," Ovechkin said. "We knew it was going to be a real battle. We made a couple of mistakes in the first period. They scored the first one, then I think, you know, in the first period we scored the most important goals for us. We get the lead and then we play our game."

Claude Giroux and Sean Couturier scored for the Flyers, who fell to 4-1-1 on the young season.

Ilya Bryzgalov stopped 23-of-28 shots in defeat.

The loss overshadowed forward Brayden Schenn's Philadelphia debut. The 20- year-old, who was recalled from the AHL on Wednesday, came to the Flyers this summer in the trade that sent Mike Richards to the Kings.

"Not the result the team was looking for but we had a real good second period and didn't have the start in the third period," Schenn said.

The Flyers drew first blood late in the first period. Wayne Simmonds got the play started by deflecting the puck away from a Washington player at the blue line. The disc ended up on the stick of Giroux, who skated in on a breakaway and made a nice move to get Vokoun out of position before putting the puck in the net at the 14:25 mark.

Perreault made it a 1-1 game with 1:20 remaining in the opening frame, and it was all Capitals from that point on. After Philadelphia turned the puck over in its own zone, Perreault beat Bryzgalov with a shot from the top of the right circle.

The Capitals took the lead with just 11.8 seconds left. Nicklas Backstrom came out from behind the net with the disc, slid a pass across the crease and Ovechkin completed the play for a 2-1 edge.

Vokoun made 14 saves in a scoreless second stanza, while Bryzgalov stopped 10 shots.

Just 2:23 into the third period, Hamrlik beat Bryzgalov with a shot from the left point for a 3-1 lead.

Ovechkin scored a power-play goal over a minute later to give Washington some breathing room. Backstrom slid a pass to Ovechkin, whose shot from the right circle found the back of the net.

Ward lit the lamp at the 4:48 mark to make it a 5-1 contest and Couturier's goal with 14.7 seconds remaining accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

The Flyers and Capitals split four meetings last season and Washington has taken six of eight and seven of the last 10 encounters overall. The Caps have also claimed three of four and eight of the last 11 matchups in Philadelphia...Schenn had one shot in 11 minutes of ice time.






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