The Washington Capitals downed the Philadelphia Flyers in a special teams bonanza on Tuesday, capturing a 4-1 victory to earn their fourth win of the season. While the Caps didn’t strike on the man advantage, Nic Dowd and Andrew Mangiapane scored on back-to-back penalty kills to give Washington two shorthanded goals on the night.
Tuesday marked just the second time the Caps have earned multiple shorthanded goals in the Alex Ovechkin era and just the 15th time in franchise history: they last did so on March 8, 2006 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. One of those goals against Pittsburgh came on an empty net, however; the last time Washington’s penalty kill scored twice against a goalie was on March 6, 2001, when Sylvain Cote and Peter Bondra each notched a goal against the New York Islanders.
Washington’s penalty killers have put up a strong performance on both ends of the ice to start the year. They’ve had an 85.7 percent success rate — good for eighth in the league — and they’ve looked dangerous offensively even before those chances paid off against Philadelphia.
The Capitals aren’t just satisfied killing penalties, now they’re aggressively looking to score themselves. During other teams’ power plays, the Capitals PK’ers have eight scoring chances to their opponents’ 22 and five high-danger chances to 10 against: for every three opportunities opponent’s power plays generate, the Caps’ penalty kill gets one of their own.
Nic Dowd broke the ice on Tuesday, picking up the puck along the boards for a breakaway before backhanding it past goaltender Samuel Ersson for his first of the year.
Andrew Mangiapane would add to the Caps’ lead later in the first period thanks to another Flyers misstep along the boards. After Flyers forward Bobby Brink turned the puck over in the Capitals’ zone, Connor McMichael sent a pass to Mangiapane, who wristed it into the net.
“I think we’re all playing fast and trying to read the play, one step ahead,” Mangiapane told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan during the first intermission. “And everyone kind of being on their toes, right? You saw with both goals that guys were jumping and guys were supporting, and we created odd-man rushes from that. So we’ve got to keep supporting and keep helping each other out.”
Though the Capitals allowed just one goal on the night — a tally from Travis Sanheim at four-on-four — the Flyers’ penalty kill created multiple scoring chances chances of their own, though those opportunities were stymied by both a struggle to finish and the work of goaltender Charlie Lindgren. Philadelphia led the league with 16 shorthanded goals last season, four more than any other team.
Head coach Spencer Carbery addressed the unusually-offensive penalty kills postgame, praising Dowd and Mangiapane’s plays as well as Lindgren’s defensive work.
“I saw early on, both power plays from both sides struggle and give up chances shorthanded, and we were able to capitalize on two of them,” he said. “Great finishes by Dowd — that’s not an easy finish, the way he pulls that across – and then Mange to give us that two-goal cushion. And then we gave some back on the power play, and Chucky stepped up and made some big saves. So that was the story, really.”
The Caps and Flyers won’t have to wait long for a rematch: both teams will now travel back to Washington for the second half of a home-and-home Wednesday night. Puck drop is set for 7:30 pm at Capital One Arena.
