PHILADELPHIA – The Flyers hosted the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night. The Caps entered the game with a three-game winning streak, and left with a four =-game string.
The Flyers surrendered two shorthanded goals in the opening period en reoute to a 4-1 loss.
Charlie Lindgren made 17 saves in the win.
“Tonight, it started with our penalty kill,” Lindgren said. “We did a really good job of killing their time and space and then finding a way … we got two penalty-kill goals tonight. When they’re doing that, your penalty kill is doing things right.”
The Flyers dropped their home opener over the weekend, 3-0, and have scored one goal on home ice in two games.
“I think that the biggest key is there’s a frustration level,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “They want to play well. They want to win a hockey game. They want to score a goal in the home building. You can’t let the frustration turn into cheating. You can’t forget about your structure as we’re going through this.
“It’s kind of doubled up because it’s the start of the year and we’re in this jam, so there’s even more pressure. We just have to play the way we’re supposed to play within our structure.”
Nic Dowd opened the scoring when he struck off an odd man rush on a penalty kill to give the Caps a 1-0 lead.
“I saw early on, both power plays from both sides struggle and give up chances short-handed,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said. “We were able to capitalize on two of them. Great finish by Dowd — that’s not an easy finish, the way he pulls that across, and then ‘Mang’ to give us that two-goal cushion.”
Andrew Mangiapane made it 2-0 with the second shortie of the period.
“I’ve never been traded, so I don’t know the expectations and how it feels,” he said. “The group of guys here have been making it easy for me for transitioning, and that goes with on and off the ice, with the management and the coaching staff, players, everyone just kind of helping out and lending a hand if I have any questions. So, they’re making the transition a lot easier.
“I think it still kind of takes time and just building chemistry on the ice and knowing when guys want pucks, when they don’t, kind of little plays, chips and just learning the system, things like that.”
Travis Sanheim was the lone striker for the Flyers; his early third period goal cut the deficit to 2-1.
John Carlson hit for a goal 62 seconds later to restore the two0goial lead.
Jakob Chychrun scored later in the third for the 4-1 final.
Samuel Ersson made 25 saves in the loss.
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