Hart Helps Flyers Claim Game 1 Over Canadiens

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

In his playoff debut against Boston last Sunday, Carter Hart said he was going to treat it like any other game. He certainly did then. In his first game in a playoff series, there was no difference. It was just another game for the netminder.

Calm, cool and collected, Hart made 27 saves to help the Flyers claim a 2-1 win in Game 1 of their first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.

The Flyers got off to a strong start. They controlled the offensive zone possession and opened up a sizable lead in shots, taking seven of the first eight in the game.

On their first power play of the game, the Flyers finally snapped a long drought with the man advantage. Ivan Provorov fired a shot from the point that deflected off a Montreal stick and then Jake Voracek and beat Carey Price to make it 1-0 at 8:42.

Montreal picked up the play from there, starting to generate chances. Though they only had five shots on goal in the period, the Flyers committed several turnovers that led to dangerous chances. Hart stood tall to keep the Flyers in front.

Through 20 minutes, the Flyers had an 11-5 lead in shots.

Montreal came out firing in the second period and controlled things from there. Less than three minutes into the period, they matched their shot total from the first. Midway through the period, the Canadiens were outshooting the Flyers, 9-2.

On the Flyers best chance of the period, Price robbed Scott Laughton. Down and out, Price was able to deflect a shot by Laughton with his goal stick up and over the net, keep the Canadiens down by just one.

As the period moved into the closing minutes, the Canadiens got a power play for the first time. Hart kept the Flyers in front, but finally the Canadiens were able to get on the board. A Shea Weber shot was stopped by Hart and he was able to stop the rebound chance by Brendan Gallagher as well. But a second rebound squirted back out to Weber with a wide open net and he buried it to tie the game at one at 14:38.

Just 16 seconds later, the Flyers were back on the board. An attempted clear by the Canadiens was kept in by Travis Sanheim. Sanheim flipped a shot on goal that was deflected by Joel Farabee and stopped by Price, but left a rebound. Farabee knocked it home to put the Flyers back in front.

At the close of the second, the Canadiens led in shots, 22-19.  

The Flyers got back to their game in the third period, holding the Canadiens to six shots while taking 13. They let a couple of power-play chances get away and had to protect the one-goal lead into the final minutes of the game. 

With 26.4 seconds left and the goalie pulled, Nick Suzuki hit the post with a shot that kept the Flyers in front. They were able to survive to the finish to claim the victory in Game 1.

Hart finished the game with 27 saves on 28 shots. Price stopped 29 of 31 shots.

The Flyers get back on the ice for Game 2 of the series against the Canadiens on Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• PHI Jake Voracek (1) PP (Ivan Provorov, Claude Giroux) 8:54

2nd Period

• MTL Shea Weber (3) PP (Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher) 14:38
• PHI Joel Farabee (2) (Travis Sanheim) 14:54

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics