Flyers Sweep Caps

The Washington Capitals bring out the best in the Philadelphia Flyers.

Ruslan Fedotenko scored two goals and Dan McGillis had a goal and an assist as Philadelphia completed a perfect season against Washington with a 4-1 victory Wednesday night over the Capitals.

The Flyers won all four regular-season games against the Capitals by a combined score of 18-4.

"We feel we match up well with that team," said captain Keith Primeau, who had a goal. "We played a physical game tonight and that was a big difference for us."

Philadelphia dominated play throughout and held a 31-23 shots advantage. The Capitals tested goalie Roman Cechmanek several times early, but couldn't score until Stephen Peat got his first career goal with 4:49 left.

Cechmanek finished with 22 saves.

"We're playing well," Fedotenko said. "I don't think it's Washington, but our team played well. We were aggressive and hungry for the puck and it paid off."

Simon Gagne added two assists as the Flyers stretched the Capitals' winless streak to four. Philadelphia got points from eight players.

"We had great play from everybody," Flyers coach Bill Barber said. "I could rotate four lines. They did a lot of good things."

Washington was 4-0-2 in its last six home games.

The Flyers improved to 11-0-1 against Southeast Division teams and 10-4-3 overall on the road.

They took a 1-0 lead 10:12 in when Fedotenko picked up a loose puck that sat next to the left post, and stuffed it into the open goal. The puck rolled wide after Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig stopped Luke Richardson's slap shot.

McGillis made it 2-0 with 1:55 left in the first period. The Philadelphia defenseman, with Andrei Nikolishin hanging all over him, threw a one-handed shot at Kolzig that hit the goalie's pad and popped into the net.

Primeau scored a power-play goal with 9:33 left in the second period, and Fedotenko made it 4-0 just 76 seconds later.

The Capitals have had injury problems during most of their games with the Flyers. They were missing Ulf Dahlen and Dainius Zubrus, two of their top offensive threats, and coach Ron Wilson said that hurt his team.

"It's a bad matchup right now," Wilson said. "They have caught us a number of nights when we have been slow (and) those guys give you an honest effort."

Game notes:
Philadelphia LW Paul Ranheim played his 900th NHL game. ... The Capitals haven't scored a short-handed goal this season. ... McGillis has 45 goals in 415 career games, three in 19 games against Washington.

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News