Tuch scores 2 more goals, Capitals beat Flyers 5-2

Alex Tuch scored his eighth and ninth goals in his first season with Washington, the second into an empty net to help the Capitals seal a 5-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.

Tuch arrived in a trade from Buffalo and signed an eight-year, $84-million contract extension in June. On Wednesday, he became only the second player in Capitals history to score at least nine goals in his first 11 games for the team, joining Dino Ciccarelli, who scored 12 times in his first 11 Caps appearances to close the 1988-89 season.

Jordan Kyrou also scored twice, and Aliaksei Protas added his first goal of the season as Washington completed a five-game homestand with four wins.

Dylan Strome had three assists, and Jack St. Ivany and Pierre-Luc Dubois each had two. Logan Thompson made 23 saves after missing a victory Saturday against Buffalo because of a lower-body injury.

Matvei Michkov scored his ninth goal of the season and fifth on the power play for Philadelphia, which lost its third straight after an overtime defeat to visiting Columbus on Tuesday night.

Sean Couturier leveled it early in the second, and Joseph Woll made 25 stops for the Flyers.

Tuch got started only 1:50 into the game.

St. Ivany put the initial attempt on Woll’s net from outside the right faceoff circle, and Strome got a stick to the rebound before Tuch one-timed the puck past Woll from the slot.

Tuch put the game away more than 55 minutes later, taking a feed from Dubois on the break to score easily against the Flyers’ 6-on-5.

Up next

Flyers: Host Utah on Sunday.

Capitals: At Nashville on Thursday night.

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