(Kate Frese/Sports Talk Philly)
By: Bill Minchin, Sports Talk Philly Writer
The Philadelphia Flyers bounced back from their worst performance of season on Tuesday night. They allowed just 16 shots on goal. Claude Giroux, Matt Read and Sean Couturier all scored and the Flyers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 at the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday night.
In what has become a regular occurence this season, the Flyers came out the gate like they got stuck in it. They had no jump, minimal effort and once again they fell behind on the scoreboard.
Nikita Nesterov got the Canadiens on the board less than five minutes into the game. Nesterov fired a laser from the point over the shoulder of Michal Neuvirth for his fourth goal of the season at 4:51. Alex Galchenyuk and Andrei Markov picked up the assists.
Philadelphia did play better as the period went along but never really generated any quality scoring chances despite out shooting Montreal 10-5 for the period.
The Flyers had the lone power play in the first but were ineffective with the man advantage and the Canadiens held the 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
The Flyers played much better in the second period. For much of the second stanza, Philadelphia outworked the Canadiens. The problem was Carey Price was between the pipes for the Habs.
Thanks to a late power play, the Flyers were fianlly able to break through. Claude Giroux picked up his 12th goal of the season at 17:50 on power play to get the score even at 1-1. Giroux fired a pass from Mark Streit that hit Price's arm and trickled in. Brayden Schenn picked up the other assist.
The Flyers outshot the Canadiens 7-6 for the period but more importantly tied the game heading into the final 20 minutes.
Matt Read put the Flyers ahead at the 3:32 mark of the third period. Read fired a rolling puck past Price from the top of the circle for his seventh goal of the season.
From there the Flyers would lock down the game. Montreal had very few chances the rest of the way.
Sean Couturier iced the win with an empty net goal at 19:46 and the Flyers skated away with the 3-1 win. Michal Neuvirth made 15 saves to get his second straight home victory.
