Jamie Drysdale fires clincher as Flyers defeat Capitals

Jamie Drysdale scored a power-play goal with 5:23 remaining as the Philadelphia Flyers topped the visiting Washington Capitals 4-2 on Tuesday.

Dan Vladar (26 saves) authored a terrific performance to help Philadelphia snap a four-game losing streak. Owen Tippett, Carl Grundstrom and Rasmus Ristolainen also scored for the Flyers, while Travis Konecny picked up two assists.

Anthony Beauvillier notched a goal and an assist for Washington, which came in on a three-game winning streak. Aliaksei Protas also scored for the Capitals, while Clay Stevenson turned aside 18 shots.

With the game tied at 2-2 with under six minutes left, Trevor Zegras won a puck battle in the corner and sent a pass back to Drysdale near the blue line. Stevenson got a piece of Drysdale’s blast, but the puck still found the back of the net.

Vladar made a key save on Alex Ovechkin with about 1:30 remaining to preserve the lead. Washington pressured a bit thereafter before Ristolainen clinched it with a long-distance empty-netter with 16.8 seconds to go.

The Flyers opened the scoring about six minutes into the game, following a nice passing sequence. Matvei Michkov made a cross-ice pass to the left point to Travis Sanheim, who promptly sent a diagonal feed to Tippett. The Philadelphia winger deked to his backhand and slipped one past Stevenson.

Both teams scored in the first half of the second period. Grundstrom made it 2-0 when his centering pass caromed off two Capitals players and into the net.

However, Washington responded with a short-handed goal less than four minutes later. Protas, playing in his 300th NHL game, rammed home his 19th of the season on a 2-on-1 feed from Beauvillier.

Beauvillier tied it early in the third period when he deposited a rebound past Vladar.

With just under seven minutes left, Washington nearly went ahead when Ovechkin’s shot trickled off the glove of Vladar and just past the right post.

–Field Level Media