The Flyers have a lot of new faces this season.
Three of the newcomers spearheaded the club's 2-1 road win Saturday night over the Capitals.
Martin Jones, Rasmus Ristolainen and Derick Brassard all played some of their best in a Flyers jersey at Capital One Arena as the team picked up its first Metropolitan Division victory.
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The Flyers (6-2-2) grabbed three of a possible four points on their two-game road trip through Pittsburgh and Washington.
The Flyers' two regulation losses have come against teams with a combined record of 17-1-4.
The Capitals (5-2-4) suffered their first regulation home loss. The Flyers and Washington meet three more times this season.
• The Flyers couldn't ask for much more from Jones thus far.
NHL
The 31-year-old backup goalie is 3-0-0 and has 95 saves on 100 shots.
He picked up 31 of them Saturday night. Fourteen of those came in the third period when the Capitals finally cracked him but couldn't net an equalizer.
The Flyers sported the league's worst save percentage last season (.883). Early on this season, Carter Hart has a .926 mark and Jones is at .950. Both goalies have been sharp and the Flyers are feeding off of it.
Washington netminder Vitek Vanecek stopped 30 of the Flyers' 32 shots.
• The line of Brassard, Joel Farabee and Cam Atkinson had a superb shift to produce the game-opening goal a little over halfway through the action.
The trio, which had gone scoreless over the previous four games, was all over the Capitals in the offensive zone. Atkinson ended up finding Brassard, who fired a shot top shelf from the circle to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.
About four and a half minutes later, Sean Couturier extended the Flyers' advantage to 2-0. He batted home a rebound off of a shot by Ristolainen, who picked up his first point as a Flyer on the play.
Giroux tallied the secondary assist on the goal. The captain and Couturier have 12 points apiece through 10 games.
Ristolainen put up arguably his best performance in a Flyers sweater to date. In 22:48 minutes, the Finnish defenseman had an assist, four hits, three shots and a plus-1 mark.
His defensive partner Travis Sanheim was very good, as well. He was effective all night at 5-on-5 and on the penalty kill.
Both blueliners played considerably better than how they did in the Flyers' 3-2 overtime loss Thursday to the Penguins.
More: Ellis, Hayes push it, Brassard fined for his bop and more on Flyers
• The Flyers' penalty kill went 3 for 3.
Alex Ovechkin, who entered the night only one goal away from tying Brett Hull for fourth on the NHL's all-time list, was held without a point for just the second time this season.
The future Hall of Famer did serious damage on the Flyers last season, putting up eight goals and 12 points in six games.
Atkinson blocked an Ovechkin power play shot in the third period with 5:05 minutes remaining. Atkinson, who was left hobbled by the blast, was able to take another shift late in the game.
• The Flyers had a solid first period, outshooting the Capitals 12-6.
The opening 20 minutes were a problem for the Flyers last season as they surrendered more first-period goals than any other team in hockey with 63.
Through 10 games this season, they've yielded only six first-period goals.
• The Flyers have three days before their next game Wednesday when they host the Maple Leafs (7:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP).
The club is scheduled to practice Sunday in Voorhees, New Jersey. We'll know more after practice on if there are any changes to the statuses of Ryan Ellis (lower body) and Kevin Hayes (abdominal).
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