PHILADELPHIA (AP) Wayne Simmonds and the Flyers are playing every game as if it’s the postseason. It paid off this weekend.Simmonds scored
two goals to lift the Flyers past the Washington Capitals 6-3 on Sunday
night
Dalton Prout Jersey Womens , capping a four-point weekend and helping Philadelphia solidify its playoff position.”We desperately needed the two points
and we played like we needed it,” Simmonds said.Oskar Lindblom, Shayne
Gostisbehere, Ivan Provorov and Jakub Voracek also had goals for Philadelphia
(37-25-11, 85 points), which stayed in third place in the Metropolitan Division
and moved within four points of the first-place Capitals (41-24-7, 89 points).
The Flyers began play tied with Columbus, which was idle Sunday, but have a
tiebreaker over the Blue Jackets.Philadelphia scored all four of its goals in
the third period of Saturday’s 4-2 comeback win at Carolina.”It was critical,”
Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said of the weekend wins. ”These are basically all
playoff games right now. Real gutsy effort.”Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading
43rd goal of the season
Elias Lindholm Jersey Womens , and Chandler Stephenson and John Carlson had goals for the Capitals, whose four-game winning streak was
snapped.Washington rested Saturday and coach Barry Trotz expected his players to
come out aggressively against the Flyers, who were playing their second game in
less than 24 hours. He was disappointed that didn’t happen.”You know they’re
going to be in desperate mode,” Trotz said. ”You know they’re going to give a
good effort, but at the same time, we had all the advantage. We were in our beds
last night watching the (Carolina) game.”We talked about taking control of the
game early, make it real hard. I don’t think we did that. We didn’t make it hard
enough on them. We just played. We were chasing the game the whole night.”The
Flyers took the lead for good on Lindblom’s first career goal with 1:41 left in
the second period. Voracek passed to the rookie in the slot, and Lindblom’s
wrist shot went off goalie Philipp Grubauer’s blocker, off the pipe and then
into the goal. The rookie went 12 straight games without a point before picking
up an assist in Saturday’s 4-2 win over Carolina.Philadelphia extended its lead
to 3-1 with 18.3 seconds left in the period when Provorov’s wrist shot from the
side boards got through traffic, deflected off defenseman Christian Djoos‘ leg
and past Grubauer.Simmonds’ deflection of Robert Hagg’s slap shot made it 4-1
1:37 into the third period.After Stephenson finished a 2-on-1 to pull the
Capitals within 4-2 with 9:29 left
Alan Quine Jersey Womens , Simmonds scored his second of the night on a wrist shot from the slot that zoomed past Grubauer’s glove into the top-right
corner.Carlson’s backhander from a sharp angle with 3:53 left made it 5-3, and
Voracek finished the scoring with an empty-netter with 37.1 seconds to
play.Hakstol felt Saturday’s win helped relax the Flyers, who had lost seven of
eight entering Saturday.”Took a little weight off,” he said. ”Tonight, the focus
was good and clear.”Gostisbehere opened the scoring 2:15 into the second period
on a one-timer after Claude Giroux’s clean win on the faceoff.Washington tied it
at 1 with 4:52 left in the second on Ovechkin’s goal. Travis Boyd set up the
goal with a pretty pass from the slot, spinning to backhand to Ovechkin, who
tipped it over Mrazek.Mrazek, playing in his 11th game for Philadelphia after
being acquired from Detroit, had a strong game until giving up Carlson’s tally.
He stopped Nicklas Backstrom on a 2-on-1 in the first period and later made a
good glove same on Dmitry Orlov’s slap shot to keep the Capitals scoreless in
the first. Mrazek’s most important save may have been with 8:10 left after
Washington pulled within two goals when he used his pad to deny Lars Eller from
close range. He finished with 25 saves.Grubauer returned to the net for
Washington after struggling Braden Holtby made 22 saves in Friday’s 6-3 win over
the Islanders. Holtby, the 2016 Vezina Trophy winner
Petr Mrazek Jersey Womens , had lost seven of eight and hadn’t played in four consecutive games entering Friday.Grubauer made 29 saves.NOTES: Washington
C Evgeny Kuznetsov (upper body) didn’t play after being slashed in the left
wrist/arm area in Friday’s 6-3 win over the Islanders. He is day-to-day.
Stephenson replaced Kuznetsov. … Simmonds upped his season goals total to 23. …
Philadelphia finished 3-1 in the regular-season series. … Hagg returned after
missing the last four contests with a lower-body injury. … Washington D Brooks
Orpik (lower body) didn’t play. He is day-to-day. … Flyers LW Michael Raffl
(upper body) left in the second period and didn’t return.UP NEXTCapitals: Host
Dallas on Tuesday night.Flyers: At Detroit on Tuesday night. BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP)
— Nathan MacKinnon shrugged off his hot start with the Colorado Avalanche this
season by suggesting he can be better.“It’s nice for sure. I think I can play
better than I am,” MacKinnon said after scoring twice in a 6-1 rout of the
Buffalo Sabres on Thursday night. “I’m just putting it in right now but I think,
overall, it hasn’t been the easiest year so far.”Coach Josh Bednar agrees with
his player, who has five goals and extended his season-opening scoring streak to
four games.“I feel like he’s just kind of starting to hit his stride,” Bednar
said, before turning his attention to the Avalanche’s top line rounded out by
Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog.“If they continue to work the way they’re
working, and do the right things and pay attention to the process, it’s going to
come for them
Jordan Schroeder Jersey Womens ,” he added.Tyson Jost and Colin Wilson scored power-play goals 2:25 apart in a first period in which the Avalanche
built a 3-0 lead on Carl Soderberg’s goal with 3:30 left.MacKinnon scored his
first of the game 28 seconds after Buffalo’s Nathan Beaulieu cut Colorado’s lead
to 3-1 late in the second period.MacKinnon and Alexander Kerfoot then scored
breakaway goals in the final five minutes as Colorado improved to 3-1 and
bounced back from a 5-2 loss at Columbus.Semyon Varlamov stopped 30 shots to
improve to 3-0. And Mackinnon matched the Colorado franchise record for a goal
streak to open a season, set by John Mitchell three years ago.Sabres defenseman
Rasmus Dahlin , the first overall draft pick this summer, got his first career
point with an assist on Beaulieu’s goal.Otherwise, very little went right for
Buffalo (2-2), which squandered a chance to match last season’s team-best
three-game winning streak.Whatever momentum the Sabres attempted to generate
were dashed with 22 second left in the first period when Kyle Okposo’s goal was
disallowed following a coaching challenge for goalie interference.Officials
determined Okposo interfered with Varlamov when he crashed into the crease to
convert Jack Eichel’s pass. After redirecting the pass, Okposo backed into the
goalie, forcing Varlamov to lift his right pad and allowing the puck to sneak in
beneath it.“I knew it was going to be probably a 50-50 one,” Okposo said. “I
don’t think me being there really affected it. But they did. And that’s how it
goes.”Okposo was more frustrated over how Buffalo started the game.“I think it
would’ve been nice to get out of there 3-1, but we deserved to be down
3-0
Matt Calvert Jersey Womens ,” he said. “We didn’t play well in the first period. Like, it was bad.”Buffalo’s bad breaks were compounded after Beaulieu
scored.MacKinnon scored to regain Colorado’s three-goal edge after a Sabres
clearing attempt got caught up referee Francis Charron’s skate. The puck
dribbled to Rantanen, who fed a pass through the crease to a wide-open
MacKinnon.“Last game we started out a little bit sloppy so it was something we
emphasized before the game,” Wilson said. “We answered the bell there and stayed
in our mindset the whole game.”NOTES: Colorado converted 2 of 4 power-play
opportunities, while Buffalo went 0 for 7. … Avalanche C Vladislav Kamenev made
his season debut. Acquired from Nashville in a three-team trade in November, he
missed 50 games after breaking his arm in his Avalanche debut. … Sabres LW Johan
Larsson made his season debut since sustaining a lower body injury during the
preseason. D Zach Bogosian (lower body) was placed on injured reserve. … Sabres
G Carter Hutton had 24 saves.UP NEXTAvalanche: Return home to play Calgary
Flames on Saturday, before heading east for four-game road trip.Sabres: Open
five-game road trip at Arizona on Saturday.
