Flyers’ playoff push and Porter Martone’s debut spoiled by Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals in 6-4 loss

WASHINGTON ― The Flyers’ final countdown began on Tuesday night.

Playing in their 74th game of the season, and facing a Washington Capitals team clinging to its own playoff dreams, the Flyers had a chance to gain some ground but instead fell, 6-4.

The loss ended the Flyers’ winning streak at three games; they still have not won four in a row since Feb. 6-12, 2024.

However, there is some good news. The Flyers didn’t really lose any ground in the playoff race as the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, New York Islanders, and Columbus Blue Jackets all lost, too.

They remain tied in points with the Red Wings and Senators, with all three teams trailing the Blue Jackets by two points for the second wild card slot in the Eastern Conference. All three cteams have a game in hand on Columbus. Washington pulled within three points of the Blue Jackets.

The Flyers also remain three points back of the Islanders for the third seed in the Metropolitan Division, while the Pittsburgh Penguins expanded their lead in second — they are now six points ahead of the Flyers — with a win.

Ending up on the losing side also spoiled the debut of Porter Martone, who was drafted sixth overall in the 2025 NHL draft and did not look out of place in his first twirl in Orange and Black. He skated on a line with Christian Dvorak and Travis Konecny, the latter of whom was his linemate during exhibition games for Canada at the World Championships last May.

The 19-year-old played almost 17 minutes, got tagged for a delay of game penalty, and had six shot attempts and five shots on goal, including a one-timer off a pass from Konecny as they were rushing into the zone. He made a great play in the third period with the Flyers down by two, when he backchecked on a play that had turned into a two-on-one, and knocked away the pass across the ice.

» READ MORE: Porter Martone is going from NCAA freshman to an NHL playoff race. That precedent is rarer than you think.

A physical game that featured a combined 59 hits and had a noticeably high-tempo pace and intensity to it seemed to catch the Flyers off-guard to start, but they settled in, and said afterward they felt they handled it better as the game wore on. It was a good test for a young team that is hoping to play well into April.

And it also showed that the Flyers’ special teams need to step up. The power play went 0-for-3, including a chance with under four minutes left in regulation and the Flyers needing a goal to tie it. Washington scored twice when it had the man advantage, thanks to offensive-zone penalties taken by Konecny and Trevor Zegras.

Skating in his 900th game, Washington’s Tom Wilson opened the scoring with just over five minutes left in the first period during five-on-five action. On a two-on-two against Rasmus Ristolainen and Travis Sanheim, he took a drop pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois and sent the shot against the grain and past Dan Vladař’s blocker. It was the 47th time in 74 games that the Flyers trailed first.

Less than four minutes later, they found themselves in a 2-0 hole when Alex Ovechkin registered his 927th regular-season goal.

The Capitals gained the offensive zone, and Connor McMichael dished the puck to defenseman Matt Roy, who was trailing. He had room and skated down toward the net before sending a pass into the crease that Jamie Drysdale tried to clear, only for the 40-year-old Ovechkin to swoop in and knock it home.

An unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, there is a strong possibility that the game was “The Great 8’s” last against the Flyers.

» READ MORE: Porter Martone grew up in Canada rooting for the Flyers. He’ll make his NHL debut with them on Tuesday.

But as they’ve done countless times before, the Flyers battled back, and before the clock hit five minutes into the second period, it was all tied up.

Just 39 seconds in, Sanheim scored during four-on-four action, firing a one-timer off a pass from Konecny. The referees initially said there was goaltender interference by Dvorak and called off the goal. But coach Rick Tocchet and his staff challenged the call because Dvorak actually never touched Capitals goalie Logan Thompson as he crashed the net. The replay showed that Capitals defenseman Martin Fehérváry’s stick touched Thompson, and after a review, the goal counted.

Sanheim has nine goals on the season, one shy of his career high set in 2023-24.

Under four minutes later, it was Carl Grundström getting on the board for the first time since Feb. 3 — which also just happened to be against the Capitals.

The Flyers dumped the puck in, and Owen Tippett put a little bit of pressure on Roy, causing him to send a somewhat blind pass up the boards. Zegras got there first and sent a quick, zinging backhand to the front of the net where Grundström was. The Swede corralled it and tucked it around the extended right pad of Thompson.

The good vibes didn’t last long , as the Capitals retook the lead just over two minutes later on a goal by Jakob Chychrun. Off an offensive-zone faceoff during a power play, Ryan Leonard sent the puck over to the big defenseman, and he fired off a one-timer past Vladař. Leonard scored to make it 4-2 with his own power-play goal later in the period when it looked like Vladař was screened by Nick Seeler.

But once again, the Flyers tried to charge back in the third period.

Less than 40 seconds in, Sanheim made a strong play in the defensive zone that started the rush up the ice. Martone received the puck on a two-on-one with Konecny and tried to pass it over to the veteran winger.

The play was broken up, but Sanheim was there to pick up the loose puck and to send it over to Konecny, who just missed short side. He followed his shot and retrieved the puck before feeding it in front to Dvorak for the latter’s 16th goal of the season. Dvorak is now one goal shy of his career high.

Ovechkin then made it 5-3 when he was left alone in front and reached to tap in a pass from McMichael. It was Ovechkin’s 54th goal and 86th point in 82 regular-season games against Philly.

But the Flyers again pulled within one goal.

Ristolainen got the puck inside the zone and made a nice move to give himself time and space to fire a shot on frame. On the way to the net, Denver Barkey deflected the puck, which was also deflected off a Caps player, and got it past Thompson to cut Washington’s lead to 5-4.

Barkey has two goals and an assist in his past four games after being held off the score sheet for six contests. Ristolainen has five assists in his past seven games.

Zegras extended his point streak to six games (one goal, five assists). ... Konecny extended his point streak to three games (one goal, four assists) to give him 65 points in 70 games. ... Forwards Alex Bump and Garrett Wilson, and defenseman Noah Juulsen were healthy scratches. … Defenseman Emil Andrae played in his 100th NHL game.

The Flyers return home for another meeting with the Red Wings on Thursday (7 p.m., NBCSP) to kick start a back-to-back that takes them to Long Island on Friday to play the Islanders (7 p.m., NBCSP+, NHLN).