Price, Canadiens Send Flyers to Brink with Loss

(Photo: Kate Frese)

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers were facing a similar situation to Sunday in the final minutes of the third period. The goalie was pulled and the Flyers had one final chance to find an equalizer.

There would be no magical comeback on this night. The Flyers were never able to solve the Canadiens at even strength and Montreal claimed a 3-1 win over the Flyers on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center.

Shots were limited for the first 10 minutes as both teams struggled to get chances on goal. In the final half of the opening period, Montreal started to dictate the play and it eventually led to the first goal.

Christian Folin fired a shot from the point that was blocked by Tomas Tatar, but the rebound went back into the slot for Brendan Gallagher. Gallagher put a shot through the five-hole of Carter Hart to give the Canadiens the lead with 1:39 left in the period.

After 20 minutes, shots were 11-8 Montreal.

The Canadiens struck again early in the second, again on another screened chance. Shea Weber fired through traffic off a clean face-off win and beat Hart to make it 2-0 Montreal.

That was the only scoring for the period as the Flyers struggled to get any quality chances on Carey Price. Through 40 minutes, shots were 24-24.

The Flyers got the game's first power play just over seven minutes into the period and finally were able to solve Price. On a rebound, Sean Couturier roofed a shot over Price for his 30th goal of the season to cut the lead to one.

From there, play opened up with chances for both sides. A stretch of continuous play quickly brought the game to under four minutes to play. 

With the goalie pulled, the Flyers never got clean entry and Montreal was able to finish it off as Max Domi scored into the empty net.

Price finished with 32 saves in the win. Hart stopped 33 of 35 shots in the loss.

The win pulled the Canadiens five points ahead of the Flyers in the standings, likely putting an end to the Flyers playoff hopes.

The Flyers get back on the ice on Thursday night against the Chicago Blackhawks at 8:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• MTL Brendan Gallagher (31) (Tomas Tatar, Christian Folin) 18:21

2nd Period

• MTL Shea Weber (12) (Max Domi, Andrew Shaw) 4:45

3rd Period

• PHI Sean Couturier (30) PP (James van Riemsdyk, Claude Giroux) 8:42
• MTL Domi (25) EN (Shaw, Nate Thompson) 18:55

Game Statistics