The Washington Capitals take first place in the Eastern Conference with a win over the Philadelphia Flyers
The top two teams in the National Hockey League’s Eastern Conference, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Washington Capitals met in Washington D.C. on Sunday 7 November. The Flyers brought
a record of 9-4-1 to the Verizon Center, while the Capitals were 9-4 going into the game.
When the game ended, just 29 seconds into overtime, the Capitals were victorious by a score of 3-2. With the victory, the Capitals moved into first place in the Eastern Conference, holding
a one-point advantage over the Flyers.
Braden Holtby made his first NHL start in net for the Capitals while rookie Sergei Bobrovsky stood between the pipes for the Flyers. Holtby is 21 years old while Bobrovsky is 22; their
young ages made them the youngest goaltenders to play on opposing sides of the ice this year. Both goaltenders were outstanding and at the end of the game Bobrovsky had recorded 36 saves, while Holtby had 23.
The Flyers started the scoring in front of the sell-out crowd of 18,398 fans when Nikolay Zherdev, on a two-on-one rush, wired a shot past Holtby at the 9:21 mark of the first period.
The Flyers would hold the lead for most of the first period until the Capitals Eric Fehr tied it with less than three minutes to play in the period. Fehr fired a wrist shot that beat Bobrovsky high to the glove side.
The second period scoring was again opened by the Flyers, when Ville Leino deflected a shot from Andrej Meszaros past Holtby at the 4:04 mark of the period. The Capitals were able to tie
the score at two when Alexander Semin scored on the power play, with assists from Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom. Leino was in the penalty box for high sticking the Capitals Mike Green when Semin put the puck in the net.
The third period was scoreless, but not without its share of excitement. The Capitals finished the period with a four-minute power play when Chris Pronger was called for a double minor
penalty for high sticking Dave Steckel. With 19 seconds left in the final period the power play went from five on four to five on three when Sean O’Donnell joined Pronger in the penalty box for boarding Thomas Fleischmann. The Capitals were unable to score
with the manpower advantage in the third period and the game headed into overtime.
With O’Donnell still serving his penalty, the Capitals Mike Green fired a shot from between the faceoff circles past the screened Bobrovsky for the 3-2 overtime win.
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