Flyers fail to capitalize, fall to Canadiens in shootout

When regulation ended, all was not lost for the Flyers, who had to face an overtime against the Montreal Canadiens. The one point surrendered held no significance if they picked up the second one in the extra session.

The Flyers would find themselves with six chances to end the game. Three came in overtime. Three more came in the shootout. The Flyers failed to score on all of them.

That handed over another precious point as the Canadiens managed to escape with a 3-2 win on Friday night at Bell Centre.

The Flyers started the game with plenty of energy, but would surrender the first goal of the game on an unfortunate play. Dale Weise went for a centering pass from the corner and his pass banked off of Nick Schultz and past an unsuspecting Michal Neuvirth to give the Canadiens the lead just 2:56 into the game.

The response from the Flyers was as quick as it gets. Just 10 seconds later, Nick Cousins came storming up the wing and fired a high shot to the corner over the shoulder of a stunned Mike Condon. Cousins' third goal of the season evened the score.

Play settled for the remainder of the first and most of the second. The Flyers had three power-play chances during that time and Montreal had two with both teams failing to convert.

Through two periods, the two teams remained tied at one with the Flyers holding a 26-20 edge in shots.

The Flyers came out in the third and took the lead at 3:15. A hard-working shift by Scott Laughton allowed him to play the puck along the boards to a pinching Shayne Gostisbehere. Gostisbehere moved up on the play and found Michael Raffl at the side of the net for a tip-in goal.

The goal was Raffl's eighth of the season and gave Gostisbehere an assist, extending his points streak to 14 games.

The lead would be short-lived as Montreal tied things up at 8:35. With Claude Giroux in the box with his third minor of the game, Max Pacioretty fired a shot through a screen that beat Neuvirth to tie the game. 

Both teams would generate chances, but the game would go to overtime.

A hellacious overtime with end-to-end action throughout ensued. There were chances at both ends.

The Flyers had a pair of two-on-ones and a breakaway, all stopped by Condon. The Canadiens sustained possession for more of the overtime, but played a solid 30 seconds with the Flyers scrambling and Neuvirth out of position. Both teams survived and the game headed to a shootout.

In the shootout, the Flyers struck early with a goal by Cousins in the first round, but failed to score again with two chances at the win. Pacioretty tied things up in the third round. In the fifth round, Paul Byron scored to give the Canadiens the lead and Brayden Schenn was stopped to give Montreal the win.

The Flyers return for the second half of back-to-back games on Saturday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The opening faceoff is set for 7 p.m.

Scoring Summary

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Kevin Durso is managing editor for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.