Hart, Flyers Blank Canadiens Again in Game 4 Win

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

A common theme in the series between the Flyers and Canadiens has been that goals are at a premium. For the fourth straight game in the series, it wasn't a scoring barrage for the Flyers, but another effort where they got what they needed and held Montreal at bay.

With Carter Hart as the backstop, the Flyers certainly seem to have the piece that was missing for so long. Hart secured his second straight shutout win, as the Flyers took a 3-1 series lead with a 2-0 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday afternoon.

The Flyers got off to a strong start, getting the first four shots of the first period. Just like in Game 3, they didn't take long to get on the board.

Off a rush, Sean Couturier dropped a pass for Michael Raffl, who fired to the top left corner to beat Carey Price and give the Flyers the 1-0 lead at 6:32.

The Flyers' power-play woes continued, but they did have a great chance in the blue paint that Couturier was not able to knock in. From there, Montreal started to get their bearings late in the period, as both teams got odd-man rushes.

Through 20 minutes, shots were 10-7 Flyers.

Montreal came back with the better push in the second period. They had six of the first seven shots in the period and outshot the Flyers in the period, 10-5, to take a 17-15 lead overall. Montreal also had a power play that the Flyers killed off.

The lone goal of the period went to the Flyers, though, as Phil Myers took a shot from the outside that hit off the blocker arm of Price and went in, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead with 2:56 left in the period.

In the third, the Flyers resorted to their usual style of locking down play. They had a power play just past the midpoint of the period with a chance to ice the game, but couldn't score again. Hart came up big again on a penalty kill with under seven minutes to play, making a few key saves to keep the Canadiens off the board entering the final five minutes of the game.

Hart took care of the final chances for the Canadiens, making a couple of saves in tight in the final minutes. He finished the game with 29 saves to pick up his second straight shutout. Price finished the game with 20 saves on 22 shots.

The Flyers can close out the series against the Canadiens in short order, as the two teams face off again in Game 5 on Wednesday night at 8 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Michael Raffl (2) (Sean Couturier, Jake Voracek) 6:32

2nd Period

• PHI Phil Myers (2) (Travis Konecny, Kevin Hayes) 17:04

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics