Flyers Snap Losing Streak in Montreal

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Both the Flyers and Montreal Canadiens entered Thursday's game with six-game losing streaks. Something was going to have to give for one of the teams near the bottom of the NHL standings.

For the Flyers, multiple young players helped snap the streak, defeating the Canadiens, 6-3.

Shots were limited early in the first, but the Flyers did get on the board first at 7:43. James van Riemsdyk was able to put home a rebound from an angle for his 22nd goal of the season to make it 1-0.

At 14:29, the Flyers padded their lead right off a face-off. Ivan Provorov got control and beat Carey Price with a shot from the top of the left circle to make it 2-0 with his ninth of the season.

Just over a minute later, the Canadiens got on the board in a controversial way. Mike Hoffman got the puck in the crease after a mad scramble and scored with Martin Jones was out of his net. On replay, it was revealed how the puck got back in front to Hoffman, with a hand pass from Brendan Gallagher. The Flyers were not given the opportunity to challenge the call, though a hand pass is a reviewable play, and the goal counted. 

Through 20 minutes, shots were 9-7 Montreal.

Just over five minutes into the second, the Canadiens tied the game. Jake Evans deflected a shot from Jeff Petry for his 12th of the season to even things up at two.

Just over a minute later, the Flyers were back in front. A sharp-angle shot by Oskar Lindblom caught Price by surprise and beat him short side to make it 3-2 Flyers on Lindblom's 12th of the season. Linus Högberg, making his NHL debut, picked up the secondary assist on Lindblom's goal.

With just under seven minutes remaining in the period, Ronnie Attard helped set up a goal as he got the puck ahead to Travis Konecny, who fired a shot past Price for his 15th goal of the season to make it 4-2.

Through two periods, the Canadiens had a 26-25 lead in shots.

For 15 minutes of the third period, there was very little of note between the two teams. In the final five minutes, the goals suddenly piled on again.

First, Morgan Frost got on the board, taking a feed from Noah Cates at the front of the net for his fourth goal of the season to make it 5-2 with 4:24 to play in the third. Just 1:20 later, van Riemsdyk scored his second goal of the game off a rush to make it 6-2. Less than a minute later, Cole Caufield capped the scoring with his 19th goal of the season.

Jones made 31 saves on 34 shots in the win. Price stopped 28 of 34 shots in the loss.

van Riemsdyk finished with two goals and an assist. Provorov had a goal and an assist. Bobby Brink had two assists.

The Flyers begin the final week of the season on Sunday afternoon against the Pittsburgh Penguins at 4 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI James van Riemsdyk (22) (Bobby Brink) 7:43
• PHI Ivan Provorov (9) (van Riemsdyk, Brink) 14:29
• MTL Mike Hoffman (12) (Brendan Gallagher, Christian Dvorak) 15:31

2nd Period

• MTL Jake Evans (12) (Jeff Petry, Rem Pitlick) 5:28
• PHI Oskar Lindblom (12) (Zack MacEwen, Linus Högberg) 6:49
• PHI Travis Konecny (15) (Ronnie Attard, Provorov) 13:02

3rd Period

• PHI Morgan Frost (4) (Noah Cates, Owen Tippett) 15:36
• PHI van Riemsdyk (23) (Unassisted) 16:56
• MTL Cole Caufield (19) (Chris Wideman, Nick Suzuki) 17:33

Game Statistics