The Washington Capitals took to the ice Sunday night in Philadelphia without star forward Tom Wilson. The team’s fourth-leading points scorer was suspended for seven games pending an appeal for boarding the Bruins Brandon Carlo in Friday night’s 5-1 loss to Boston.
“I think it’s a kind of a joke because we were talking to refs after the first period, and he said I don’t even think it was two minutes (penalty),” team Captain Alex Ovechkin said before the game.
With just one day off between games, Washington needed someone to step up and provide a spark. That person turned out to be goaltender Ilya Samsonov who turned back 36 of 37 Flyers shots as the Capitals beat Philadelphia 3-1 in front of a live but limited crowd at the Wells Fargo Center Sunday night.
“I thought he played a really strong game. I thought he had some really big saves,” said head coach Peter Laviolette. “Back door saves. Saves you hope your goaltender makes, but they’re tough, and you know they’re tough, but he made them all tonight.”
“I thought he played great for us,” said defenseman John Carlson. “There was plenty of big saves for us when I thought we were working real hard bringing it to them, and he was huge down the stretch for us.”
After missing more than a month for violating Covid protocols, the 23-year-old rookie has now put together back-to-back stellar starts, giving up just two goals in those contests.
The win keeps Washington (14-6-4) just two points behind the first-place New York Islanders. The Capitals have a played one less game than New York.
Philadelphia opened the scoring midway through the first period as Joel Farabee beat Samsonov for what turned out to be the Flyers’ only goal of the game.
The Capitals evened the score at the 15:11 mark of the second period when Alex Ovechkin scored his 8th goal of the season and 714th of his career. He now trails Phil Esposito by three for sixth place all-time.
Defenseman Dimitry Orlov put Washington ahead for good with 16 seconds left in the period as he beat Flyers goalie Carter Hart.
Nick Jensen gave Washington a 3-1 lead early in the third period, scoring his first goal of the season. Jensen has a goal and three assists in his last six games.
“I’ve always been a guy who tried to play the game the right way I don’t typically use statistics points as an indicator of how I played,” Jensen said. “I’m more about the process of playing good hockey.”
The game was notable because it was the first time the Capitals have played in front of fans this year. The Flyers allowed 3,000 people inside Wells Fargo Center. A welcome sight and sound for players.
“It was great. It felt almost weird out there,” Carlson said. “I like to hear some booing and some cheering even though it’s not a packed house like it should be; it feels a lot more natural for us.”