Game 59 Preview: Flyers vs. Canadiens
Interim head coach Mike Yeo's Philadelphia Flyers (18-30-10) will host interim head coach Martin St. Louis' Montreal Canadiens (15-35-8) at the Wells Fargo Center on Sunday evening. Game time at the Wells Fargo Center is 7:00 p.m. ET (NBCSP, 97.5 The Fanatic).
This is the second of three meetings this season between the teams and the lone game in Philadelphia. The Flyers are 0-0-1 to date against the Habs. The season series will conclude on April 21 at the Bell Centre.
The Flyers are playing their third game in four nights, and the second half of a back-to-back set. On Saturday afternoon, the Flyers sustained a 3-1 road loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in another in a series of recent games that have up for grabs in the third period but which the Flyers were unable to see through to victory. For a full recall and analysis of Saturday's game,
see the Postgame 5.
Montreal enters this game coming off a 4-3 (1-0) home loss to the Seattle Kraken in a seven-round shootout on Saturday. Michael Pezetta (5th goal of the season), Alexander Romanov (3rd) and a late third-period goal by Nick Suzuki (14th) forced overtime after the Habs trailed by scores of 1-0 and 3-1. Samuel Montembeault took the shootout loss in goal.
Ssince Martin St. Louis took over as interim head coach on Feb. 9, the Canadiens have been a more competitive team, posting a 7-5-1 record in the 13-game span since he took over. The team has been scoring a bit more of late (3.23 GPG, 3.15 GAA). The special teams have continued to scuffle but they are in the black (29 GF/ 22 GA) at five-on-five over the 13 games since the coaching change.
The Flyers, meanwhile, have been involved in a slew of recent games where they were tied, up by one goal or down by a goal within the third period. However, closing them out successfully has remained elusive. Dating back to Feb. 9, the Flyers are 3-8-2 over the last 13 games. Finishing scoring chances has been the biggest problem, The Flyers GPG in the last 13 games is just 2.46 goals per game (they've averaged 2.50 per game over the season as a whole).
Carter Hart will get the start in goal for the Flyers. Neither team will have a morning skate. For an in-depth look at Sunday's matchups, see today's
Five Things on the Flyers website.
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Phantoms Come Back to Beat Hartford
Trailing 4-2 at the end of the first period, Ian Laperriere's Lehigh Valley Phantoms struck back for three unanswered goals in the middle stanza and went on to claim a 6-5 regulation win over the Hartford Wolf Pack at the PPL Center on Saturday evening.
Phantoms captain Cal O'Reilly opened the scoring at 5:01 of the first period. After goals Ty Ronning and Zac Jones vaulted Hartford into a 2-1 lead, O'Reilly struck again on an unassisted power play goal (goal No. 16 on the season) to forge a 2-2 deadlock at midperiod. However, a power play tally by Lauri Pajuniemi and late-period 5-on-5 goal by Austin Rueschhoff sent the teams to the first intermission with the Wolf Pack leading, 4-2.
Kirill Ustimenko, the Phantoms' starter, was pulled after the first period. He allowed four goals on 12 shots. Felix Sandström went the rest of the way, earning the win with 22 saves on 23 shots over the final 40 minutes of the game.
In the second period, an early goal by Tanner Laczynski (2nd) and a pair of tallies by Phantoms' leading goal-scorer Hayden Hodgson (17th and 18th) put the Phantoms ahead, 5-4. In the third period, Hartford's Matt Lorito knotted the game again. With 4:07 remaining in regulation, defenseman Logan Day (4th) put the Phantoms ahead to stay.
The Phantoms (20-24-7) are right back in action on Sunday. They will host the Hershey Bears (28-21-7) at the PPL Center in Allentown. Game time is 5:00 p.m. ET.
STARTING LINEUPS
FLYERS
48 Morgan Frost - 11 Claude Giroux - 11 Travis Konecny
86 Joel Farabee - 19 Derick Brassard - 89 Cam Atkinson
20 Gerry Mayhew - 13 Kevin Hayes - 25 James van Riemsdyk
23 Oskar Lindblom - 38 Patrick Brown - 17 Zack MacEwen
9 Ivan Provorov - 61 Justin Braun
6 Travis Sanheim - 70 Rasmus Ristolainen
3 Keith Yandle - 45 Cam York
79 Carter Hart
[35 Martin Jones]
CANADIENS
22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 17 Josh Anderson
68 Mike Hoffman - 32 Rem Pitlick - 11 Brendan Gallagher
53 Michael Pezzetta - 71 Jake Evans - 41 Paul Byron
45 Laurent Dauphin - 25 Ryan Poehling - 40 Joel Armia
27 Alexander Romanov - 8 Ben Chiarot
77 Brett Kuliak - 26 Jeff Petry
64 Corey Schueneman - 20 Chris Wideman
35 Sam Montenbeault
[30 Cayden Primeau]
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