Provorov’s Highlight-Reel Goal Lifts Flyers to OT Win Over Montreal

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

A grueling 16-game schedule, closed out with four games in six days, came to an end for the Flyers on Saturday afternoon. The workload started to show in the third period as the Montreal Canadiens fired 42 shots on goal including 13 in the third period. The Flyers were lucky to get the game to overtime to get a point for the 14th time this month.

Leave it to the workhorse of the team to make sure they escaped with the second one.

Ivan Provorov pulled off a highlight-reel goal, beating Keith Kinkaid 31 seconds into overtime to give the Flyers a 4-3 win over the Canadiens, their fourth straight win to close out the month.

It did not take long for the Canadiens to get on the board. On the first shot of the game 19 seconds in, Joel Armia took a shot from the wing that hit the stick of Travis Sanheim and beat Brian Elliott under the arm to make it 1-0.

Montreal led in shots, 9-7, after one and controlled most of the play early.

The goals started coming midway through the second period. At 7:47, the Flyers got on the board as Justin Braun threw a shot on goal that was deflected by Oskar Lindblom for his 11th goal of the season.

Just 27 seconds later, Montreal re-gained the lead. Shea Weber's shot was knocked down in the crease and Tomas Tatar was there with position to knock it in and make it 2-1.

Just 45 seconds after that, the game was tied again with Kevin Hayes firing a shot past Kinkaid off a nice set-up from Joel Farabee.

The Canadiens out-shot the Flyers, 20-12, in the middle frame.

The Flyers got their first lead of the game just 1:34 into the period. Travis Konecny snapped a scoring drought of nine games with a great shot off a rush for his ninth goal of the season.

The lead lasted less than two minutes. Provorov was sent to the box for tripping on a questionable play and the Canadiens took advantage with Tatar netting his second of the day with an open net on a cross-ice feed. Elliott was possibly interference with on the play and unable to slide across, but the goal went unchallenged.

That started a wave of chances for the Canadiens, who dominated most of the period. The Flyers had a brief wave of chances in the final three minutes of regulation, but Montreal got one final push in the final seconds. With the help of Elliott, the Flyers survived to force overtime for the ninth time this month.

Just 31 seconds into the extra frame, Provorov went between his legs on entry into the zone to put a move on Max Domi and cut to the front of the net. His shot got a piece of Kinkaid before going into the net to give the Flyers the win on his sixth goal of the season.

Elliott finished with 39 saves in the win. Kinkaid stopped 25 in the loss.

Ten different players recorded a point for the Flyers. 

The Flyers shift the focus to December now, and they will open play on Tuesday night with a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs on home ice at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• MTL Joel Armia (9) (Victor Mete) 0:19

2nd Period

• PHI Oskar Lindblom (11) (Justin Braun, Jake Voracek) 7:47
• MTL Tomas Tatar (8) (Shea Weber, Phillip Danault) 8:14
• PHI Kevin Hayes (8) (Joel Farabee) 8:59

3rd Period

• PHI Travis Konecny (9) (Claude Giroux, Michael Raffl) 1:34
• MTL Tatar (9) (Nick Suzuki, Jeff Petry) 3:16

Overtime

• PHI Ivan Provorov (6) (Sean Couturier) 0:31

Game Statistics