Flyers spoil Ovechkin's 30th goal milestone

WASHINGTON — Scott Laughton had a goal and an assist as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 on Saturday night, as Capitals star Alex Ovechkin tied Mike Gardner's NHL record for 30-goal seasons.

He also tied the game at 1-1 with 2:04 left in the first period. However, Philadelphia tilted the ice back in its favor with two goals in 49 seconds during the second period. James van Riemsdyk and Wade Allison both capitalized on miscues from Darcy Kuemper and poor coverage by Washington, which has been outscored 11-7 over the last four games.

Ovechkin's goal also marked his 400th home goal, and he has scored at least 30 goals in all but one season in his career.

He is the second player in NHL history, after Wayne Gretzky, to score 400 goals at home and 400 goals on the road.

The Flyers have won three straight games, including both games of their home-and-home series with the Capitals, and eight of their last 11 overall.

"I think we feel good about ourselves. I think guys have loosened up offensively, it certainly has helped that we're scoring some goals during this period, not every mistake is a fatal one," Flyers coach John Tortorella said. "We're just cohesive right now. ... We're gonna have some bumps, and it's remembering how we're playing now when we're in those situations."

Carter Hart finished with 39 saves for his third win in four starts and made a couple of ten-bell saves to shut down Washington's three power play opportunities.

The Capitals have gone four straight games without a power-play goal and are 0-for-9 over that span.

"Hartsy played a hell of a game for us," Laughton said.

"He found pucks through traffic, swallowed them up when we needed him to, when we were stuck out in the zone for long periods of time. I thought he was the biggest part of why we were successful tonight."

Kuemper stopped 22 for the Capitals, who continued to experiment with different line combinations as Nicklas Backstrom and Tom Wilson continue to get comfortable.

"The last two games, we haven't been ourselves," Backstrom said. "So I mean, that's something we have to change. You talk about today, we had the puck a lot, we had good possession, but it's about scoring goals. We've got to create more, we've got to score more goals. But, you've got to give them credit ... at the same time, if we want to win hockey games, we have to be better."

Agencies Via Xinhua