Connor McMichael scored twice, Alex Ovechkin got an empty-netter for the 855th goal of his NHL career and the Washington Capitals beat the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 Wednesday for their fifth consecutive victory.

The visiting Flyers clawed back from a four-goal deficit to make things interesting, but they still lost their sixth in a row since winning their season opener. They have been outscored 29-14 during this skid that have continued to snowball thanks to a mix of turnovers, bad goaltending and not enough offense to compensate.

Washington was undisciplined in almost blowing a big lead but kept rolling after getting 26 saves from Logan Thompson and production from up and down the lineup. In addition to McMichael’s second and third goals of the season, fourth-line forwards Taylor Raddysh and Nic Dowd also scored for the Capitals, and Pierre-Luc Dubois also had an empty-net goal.

Philadelphia’s Ivan Fedotov allowed four goals on 24 shots in his fourth NHL start and still has yet to win a game.

Utah loses two defensemen

The Utah Hockey Club will be without a couple of defenseman for an extended period of time after Sean Durzi and John Marino each underwent surgery.

The team announced Durzi had his right shoulder repaired after being injured last week in Utah’s fourth game of the season and is expected to be out four to six months. Marino had an operation on lower-back problems that had him sidelined throughout training camp, and he’s expected to miss three to four months.

Maveric Lamoureux, a 2022 first-round pick, was recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League.

Utah, formerly known as the Arizona Coyotes before relocating to Salt Lake City under new ownership, is aiming to end the organization’s playoff drought, which goes back to 2012 not counting the pandemic-expanded 2020 postseason. The NHL is treating the club like a new franchise with the old records applying only to Arizona, a condition of the sale to new owners.