PHILADELPHIA – The Flyers’ Travis Konecny hit for a hat trick on Wednesday night in a 5-3 win over the visiting Washington Capitals.
“I’ve just been trying to come to the rink every day and just working hard,” Konecny said. “I’m kind of getting my bounces right now. It goes around in the locker room throughout a season, and it’s just going my way right now. It’s not like things are changing. My linemates … whoever I’ve been playing with this year, have been putting me in Grade A opportunities. They’re just going in right now.”
He finished his second career NHL hat trick with a power goal potted into an empty net with 13 seconds left in the game.
Carter Hart made 26 saves in the Philadelphia win.
The Flyers improved to 17-18-7.
Scott Laughton staked the Flyers to a 1-0 lead i the first period on a power play marker.
The Caps replied with a goal from Garnet Hathaway to tie it, 1-1.
Konecny scored his fist of the night in the opening frame to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead headed to the second period.
“That goal was big,” Konecny said. “When you take the lead going into the break, it’s always a big momentum thing for the game and also for our line. We had been against [Alex] Ovechkin’s line for most of that period, and we didn’t really have much, we were giving up a lot of chances against, and I think that helped us too, kind of settled us into the game and got us our momentum and confidence back.”
The goal came 12 seconds after the Caps had tied it.
Washington dropped to 23-15-6.
After a scoreless middle frame, Owen Tippett scored to extend the lead to 3-1, and Konecny scored shorthanded for a 4-1 advantage.
“We’re playing more confident offensively, and with that comes results, and obviously when results are coming there’s confidence that comes throughout the group,” Tippett said. “I think we’re all enjoying winning and we want to keep it going.”
Washington closed the gap to 4-3 on strikes from Marcus Johansson and T.J. Oshie.
“In the third I think we had chances to tie that game and just didn’t get it done, so that’s frustrating,” Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said. “There’s things that we did that shot ourselves in the foot.”
Konecny made it 5-3 on his third goal of the night.
“I just think he’s playing,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “He’s a reactionary-type player. I’ve only seen him play from afar before this year. He just plays. The puck finds him. He plays in the [right] areas. Everything about his game, his effort, I think he’s getting rewarded.”
Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves in the Caps loss.
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