The Montreal Canadiens were trying to keep their season going with a win while the Philadelphia Flyers had a second chance to face them and end it. The Canadiens didn’t get off to the best start on Friday night, as 28 seconds into the game, Ivan Provorov got the game’s first goal. The defensemen took a shot from the point that went off Shea Weber’s stick and in the net past Carey Price.
The Flyers took the early lead in a series where the team that scored first was the team that had won every game to advance. Montreal took the game’s first penalty when Ben Chiarot was called for hooking. Just as the the penalty expired, Kevin Hayes was able to beat Price five-hole to quickly increase Philadelphia’s lead to two.
The Canadiens had a chance of their own on the power play when Philippe Myers was sent off for holding. Nick Suzuki made the Flyers pay for that when he tipped a Joel Armia shot in front of the net and managed to beat Carter Hart for the goal. As he went five-hole on the Canadian, this would bring the Canadiens within one, 2-1.
Montreal took back-to-back penalties after that, but did a solid job killing off both penalties they were handed. The period ended on that score and the Habs were outshooting the Flyers 10-6.
The second period would begin with the Canadiens looking for that game-tying goal. They had an amazing opportunity when Claude Giroux got called for slashing. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to capitalize on the man advantage and it seemed to give Philadelphia the momentum.
A minute after the Claude Giroux penalty expired for the Flyers, Michael Raffl would make it 3-1 when he tipped in a shot from Travis Sanheim past Price. That would double Philadelphia’s lead with sixteen minutes left to play in the period. After that, Montreal did a good job shutting down the Flyers offence and not letting them register a shot on goal.
Nick Suzuki then scored his second of the game when Jonathan Drouin would find the centreman net side. He’d feed an amazing pass to Suzuki who would make no mistake, putting it in once again. That would see the Habs come within a goal of the Flyers, now 3-2.
Later on in the second frame, Max Domi would find himself penalized, but again, the penalty kill unit remained strong, doing a good job not letting Philadelphia have success on the power play. That’s where the period would end and the Canadiens were now 20 minutes from either going home or forcing game seven on Sunday.
Montreal did everything they could in the final period, throwing all that they had at Carter Hart and the net. However, the Flyers, now close to the finish line, were doing a good job of shutting of the Habs down defensively. Hart, just 22-years-old, also made some amazing saves in net when he had to.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough as Philadelphia held on to win it 3-2 and win the series 4-2. The Flyers now advance to round two where they will face off against the New York Islanders. That series starts on Monday with puck drop scheduled for 7:00pm. The game is available for viewing on Sportsnet Ontario, CBC and NBCSN, meanwhile, it can be heard via radio on 97.5 The Fanatic and 88.7 FM WRHU.