Game 44 Preview: Flyers @ Capitals
John Tortorella's Philadelphia Flyers (17-18-7) will visit Peter Laviolette's Washington Capitals (23-15-6) at Capital One Arena on Saturday evening. Game time is 7:00 p.m. ET.
This is the final game of the four-game season series between the clubs. The Flyers are 1-1-1 in the three games to date. On Nov. 23 at Capital One Arena, the Capitals prevailed in overtime, 4-3. On Dec. 7 at the Wells Fargo Center, Washington skated to a 4-1 win, scoring two empty-net goals to push the final margin of victory from one goal to three.
On Wednesday of this week, the Flyers earned a 5-3 win over the Capitals at the Wells Fargo Center in the front end of the current home-and-home set. Travis Konecny notched a hat trick and became just the fourth player in team history (joining Rick MacLeish, Bobby Clarke and Mark Recchi) to register an even strength, shorthanded and power play goal in the same game. Scott Laughton notched a power play goal, a shorthanded assist and a power play assist on Konecny's empty-net goal.
Konecny bring a 10-game point streak into Saturday's match. In that span, he has racked up 20 points (10g. 10a).
The Flyers have won six of their last seven games. The Caps are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games and 13-4-3 in their last 20.
For an in-depth preview of Saturday's game including team trends, stats and the keys for the Flyers to sweep the home-and-home, see today's Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com.
Projected lineups (subject to change)
Flyers
86 Joel Farabee - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny 25 James van Riemsdyk - 48 Morgan Frost - 74 Owen Tippett 13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - 57 Wade Allison 44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York 6 Travis Sanheim - 77 Tony DeAngelo 24 Nick Seeler - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
79 Carter Hart 33 Samuel Ersson
Capitals
8 Alex Ovechkin - 92 Evgeny Kuznetov - 73 Conor Sheary 15 Sonny Milano - 19 Nicklas Bà¤ckström - 43 Tom Wilson 77 T.J. Oshie - 26 Nic Dowd - 39 Anthony Mantha 9 Marcus Johansson - 20 Lars Eller - 21 Garnet Hathaway
56 Erik Gustafsson - 57 Trevor van Riemsdyk 9 Dmitry Orlov - 3 Nick Jensen 27 Alexander Alexeyev - 42 Martin Fehervary
35 Darcy Kuemper 79 Charlie Lindgren
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Phantoms Update
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (16-13-5) are right back in action on Saturday night, hosting the Syracuse Crunch (14-13-5) at the PPL Center. On Friday evening, the Bridgeport Islanders earned a split of a home-and-home set with the Phantoms -- and ended an 11-game winless skid in the process -- with a 4-3 overtime victory in Allentown at the expense of Ian Laperriere's team.
The Phantoms received two goals from AHL All-Star Game selection Tyson Foerster (10th and 11th) of the season, courtesy of brilliant feeds from Olle Lycksell. The first was a centering pass from behind the net to a wide open Foerster in the slot. The resulting tally was the only goal for either team in the first period. The Phantoms spun their wheels on a late-period power play and took a 1-0 lead to intermission.
Early in the second period, the Islanders generated closely spaced goals by ex-Flyers/Phantoms forward Andy Andreoff and Geoff Kubiak. At 7:48, Lycksell connected on a stretch pass to Foerster and Foerster did the rest on a five-hole breakaway goal against Cory Schneider (25 saves on 28 shots).
The Phantoms retook a 3-2 lead at 15:50. Jordy Bellerive found Adam Brooks open on a long pass. Brooks made a spin-around pass to Jackson Cates (7th), who beat Schneider. Lehigh Valley took the 3-2 edge into the third period.
In the third period, Otto Koivula solved Felix Sandström (23 saves on 27 shots) on a power play rebound tally that re-tied the game at 3-3. The Phantoms had several chances late in regulation to win the game but veteran goalie Schneider, who was in his first game back after a lengthy injury absence, stepped up to force overtime.
In sudden death, the Phantoms controlled the puck for much of the 3-on-3 session. Finally, Phantoms defenseman Kevin Connauton was unable to finish a point-blank chance near the post. Bridgeport countered, and William Dufour sent Aatu Rà¤ty (6th goal of the season) off on a breakaway. Rà¤ty scored to end the game.
Andreoff, who had 11 goals in 39 games for the Phantoms in 2019-20 but could easily have scored as many as 20 based off quality of chances, has been shooting the lights out for Bridgeport this season. His goal on Friday was his 19th of the 2022-23 campaign in 36 games. The 31-year-old has scored a goal in each of the four games the Islanders have played against the Phantoms this year.
Phantoms lineup on Friday:
28 Olle Lycksell - 51 Artem Anisimov - 71 Tyson Foerster 17 Garrett Wilson - 91 Elliot Desnoyers - 23 Bobby Brink 20 Max Willman - 9 Cal O'Reilly - 25 Cooper Marody 24 Adam Brooks - 18 Jackson Cates - 15 Jordy Bellerive
6 Linus Högberg - 47 Louie Belpedio 44 Kevin Connauton - 12 Ronnie Attard 37 Adam Ginning - 29 Wyatte Wylie
32 Felix Sandström [73 Nolan Maier]
Scratches: 4 Egor Zamula (illness), 13 Ryan Fitzgerald (healthy), 19 Isaac Ratcliffe (healthy), 42 Hayden Hodgson (healthy).