FLYERS NEWS

Fresh off a somewhat embarrassing loss to the Lightning the Flyers traveled to Washington tonight for another faceoff with the Eastern conference leading Capitals. Last time around the Flyers fell in overtime thanks to some questionable officiating. This time around the outcome was different but not by much. For the most part the Flyer defense was sound in this one, controlling the tempo and rhythm of the game, and frustrating Alexander Ovechkin all night long. All told Oveckin had just 3 shots on goal and never got one past the goalie, not exactly a winning formula for Washington. Brian Boucher, who started in goal in place of Sergei Bobrovsky, also had a solid night with 33 saves and only 1 goal allowed at even strength. He and the Flyer's penalty kill did let in 3 late scores, but none of those were Boucher's fault. The Flyer's power play continued to struggle, but they were at least successful 1 out of 9 times on the night to break an 0 for 15 slump. At even strength however, the Orange and Black continued to play at a high level, with Mike Richards picking up a goal and an assist and Chris Pronger picking up 2 key assists.

Early on the Flyers did come out a little sloppy, but they got lucky as Washingtotn found the crossbar and the post instead of the back of the net. Finally about halfway through the 1st period Marcus Johannson slipped one by Boucher for a 1-0 Capitals lead. While the Flyers were not able to answer in the 1st period, they did pick it up after that. Late in the 2nd period the hard work finally paid off as Claude Giroux redirected a Pronger blast for a power play tally to knot it up at 1. Richards followed a few minutes later slapping in the rebound off a Hartnell slap shot and the Orange and Black had the 2-1 lead and seeming total control, heading into the 3rd period. Halfway through the 3rd period Pronger fed Jeff Carter from the defensive zone and he took it rest away before firing a high wrister into the net for a 3-1 lead. That should have been the game there, but back to back questionable penalties on the Flyers led 2 quick Washington power play goals to tie it up at 3. Finally with just over 6 minutes to play Andreas Nodl a beautiful spinning backhand to put the Flyers back ahead 4-3. Again that should have been the game there as Flyers went on the power play a few minutes later.

The Orange and Black couldn't cash in though as Danny Briere ended the power play with a just under a minute left in the game by committing a foolish but obvious high sticking penalty. That led eventually to another Washington power play and yes another power play goal to tie things up at 4 with only 39 seconds left in the game to send it into overtime. Neither team scored in overtime. Although the Flyers did a have a power play to finish to the final 2 minutes of OT they again failed to cash in. So it came down to a shootout which usually means bad things for the Flyers but not tonight. Boucher stopped all 3 Capitals' attempts, including a brilliant glove save on Ovechkin, while Briere beat Washington goalie, Michal Neuvirth, through the 5 hole lift the Orange and Black to a huge 5-4 shootout win.