Flyers Streak Ends in Shootout Loss to Canadiens

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

For the majority of the night, the Flyers were leaning on their goaltender, hoping to steal a game that shouldn't have needed stealing. In the end, they could not escape the shootout.

The Canadiens snapped the Flyers three-game winning streak and a seven-game losing streak of their own in a 3-2 shootout loss on Thursday night.

After a couple quality shifts by the Flyers to start the game, a Montreal power play got the Canadiens rolling. They didn't score on the man-advantage, but kept the pressure on and capitalized moments after.

A distance shot by Brett Kulak was deflected by Artturi Lehkonen and past Carter Hart to give Montreal the 1-0 lead at 5:20.

For the rest of the period, the Flyers were chasing the game. Montreal swarmed the offensive zone as the Flyers mismanaged the puck and looked sluggish. Through 20 minutes, shots were 19-8 Montreal. 

The second period started with more of the same, before the Flyers got an excellent shift from Max Willman that evened the score. Willman deflected a shot that was stopped, but seconds later got the puck back in the slot and picked his spot, going high on Cayden Primeau for his second career goal at 2:20.

The Canadiens picked up the pace again, continuing to pile up shots and generate chances. Hart continued to be the difference. 

With a minute to play in the period, the Flyers grabbed the lead from another unlikely source. Jackson Cates came in on a two-on-one and took a shot that beat Primeau for his first NHL goal to make it 2-1.

Through two periods, Montreal had a 30-22 lead in shots. 

The Canadiens got the game tied up with 5:39 to play in the period. Off a face-off, the Canadiens got the puck toward the net and a rebound was there for Laurent Dauphin to even things up at two.

That forced overtime, where the Flyers had a power play and could not score. In the shootout, Jonathan Drouin got the only goal in the shootout, as the Flyers were stopped on all three attempts by Primeau.

Hart finished with 38 saves in the loss. Primeau made 37 saves in the win.

The Flyers get back on the ice on Saturday night as they face the Ottawa Senators at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• MTL Artturi Lehkonen (4) (Brett Kulak, Alexander Romanov) 5:20

2nd Period

• PHI Max Willman (2) (James van Riemsdyk, Kevin Hayes) 2:20
• PHI Jackson Cates (1) (Patrick Brown, Travis Sanheim) 19:00

3rd Period

• MTL Laurent Dauphin (1) (Ben Chiarot, David Savard) 14:21

Overtime

• No Scoring

Shootout

• MTL Jonathan Drouin – Goal
• PHI Sean Couturier – Save
• MTL Cole Caufield – Miss
• PHI Claude Giroux – Save
• MTL Mike Hoffman – Save
• PHI Cam Atkinson – Save

Game Statistics