3rd-Period Miscues Hurt Flyers in Loss to Canadiens

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Carey Price, who has been the rock driving the Montreal Canadiens hot start, allowed four goals to the Flyers on Saturday night. Somehow, it wasn't enough.

The Canadiens used a miscue by Michal Neuvirth and a shorthanded goal later in the period to get the margin necessary to win in a 5-4 Flyers loss at Bell Centre.

The scoring came fast and furious in the first period.

It started at 1:06 as the Canadiens capitalized on a Flyers turnover. Sean Couturier coughed up the puck trying to exit the zone up the middle and that allowed Andrei Markov to get a shot off. It pinballed around and over Neuvirth to put the Canadiens on the board first.

The Flyers evened things up at 4:32. Off a face-off, the puck went right to Chris VandeVelde who fired a quick shot past an unsuspecting Carey Price to tie the game.

Four minutes later, the Flyers grabbed a lead. Travis Konecny had a breakaway and had Price down and out, but missed the net. He did keep the play alive for the rest of his teammates, which allowed the Flyers to cycle the puck and find Shayne Gostisbehere for the go-ahead goal.

The lead was short-lived though, as just 39 seconds later, Montreal again capitalized on a turnover. This time, Greg Pateryn threw a shot threw a mass of players in the slot and beat the screened Neuvirth to tie things up again.

The Flyers completely dominated the second period, getting 15 shots to the Canadiens three, but Price was up to all of them, including several testers.

With 1:22 left in the period, Montreal capitalized off their best chance of the period. A counter-rush off a Flyers chance sent Montreal in with numbers. They found Alex Galchenyuk, the open man on the play, with a wide-open net and he scored to give the Canadiens the lead after two periods.

Once again, the Flyers entered a third period looking for a comeback, but they would start off the wrong way. Neuvirth turned the puck over behind the Flyers net and allowed for a quick set up to Phillip Danault in front with an empty net and he scored to make it a two-goal game.

The Flyers got a huge chance to even things up when Gostisbehere took a high stick from Andrew Shaw, giving the Flyers a four-minute power play. They capitalized on the first half, as Claude Giroux's shot went through a screened Price to cut the lead to one.

But on the last half of the four-minute penalty, a failed keep set up a chance and when the Flyers needed a stop, they didn't get it. A clearing attempt by Montreal hit the stick of Jake Voracek and that sent Tomas Plekanec the other way. His shot went right through the pads of Neuvirth to put the lead back at two with the shorthanded goal. 

The Flyers again cut the lead to one with a power-play goal. Ivan Provorov's point shot was deflected past Price by Konecny.

In the closing minutes, Michael Del Zotto took a penalty with just over two minutes left. That gave the Flyers limited time to put pressure on and they were never able to get any quality chances as time ran out.

The Flyers return to Philadelphia on Sunday for the 40th annual Flyers Wives Carnival, then return to the ice on Tuesday to face the Detroit Red Wings. Game time is at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• MTL Andrei Markov (1) (Unassisted) 1:06
• PHI Chris VandeVelde (2) (Unassisted) 4:32
• PHI Shayne Gostisbehere (3) (Jake Voracek, Michael Del Zotto) 8:30
• MTL Greg Pateryn (1) (Paul Byron, Andrew Shaw) 9:09

2nd Period

• MTL Alex Galchenyuk (4) (Alexander Radulov, Andrei Markov) 18:38

3rd Period

• MTL Phillip Danault (3) (Torrey Mitchell) 3:52
• PHI Claude Giroux (3) PP (Voracek, Gostisbehere) 9:16
• MTL Tomas Plekanec (1) SH (Max Pacioretty) 10:57
• PHI Travis Konecny (3) PP (Ivan Provorov, Sean Couturier) 16:16

Game Statistics