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Wrap: Habs Defeat Flyers, 3-1

March 19, 2019, 11:03 PM ET [194 Comments]
Bill Meltzer
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Wrap: Habs Defeat Flyers, 3-1

The Philadelphia Flyers' faint playoff hopes took a severe blow on Tuesday night as they dropped a 3-1 decision to the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center. Philly has lost three of its last four games.

For the most part, despite a relatively high volume of shots and shot attempts, it was a tight-checking game both ways -- no 2-on-1 or breakaways. Overall, Montreal checked better than the Flyers did. There wasn't much in the way of layers of traffic or high quality looks for the Flyers.

"I don’t want to say we weren’t urgent or we didn’t come out strong. They got a lucky bounce, rebound right on their tape, or a blocked shot and the puck just gets right on their tape, I guess that could have went one way or the other, it’s too bad we’re on the bad side of it, but you have to keep battling," Flyers center Sean Couturier said.

When they did momentarily have some space, they seemed to fumble or overskate pucks. Montreal had somewhat better success at getting pucks and traffic where they wanted them, generated superior forechecking pressure in stretches and, in their own zone, enabled Carey Price to see most of the shots.

"I think it was a tight game out there, felt it could have went one way or the other tonight. I think Price made some nice saves, but I think we made it a little easy on him. He saw a lot of pucks and he’s that type of goalie when he sees that puck, he just makes it look easy and frustrating for us. It’s a tough loss," Couturier said.

Brendan Gallagher (31st), Shea Weber (12th) and Max Domi (empty net, 25th) scored for the Habs. Andrew Shaw had two assists (20th and 21st), while Domi (39th), Tomas Tatar (29th), Christian Folin (6th) and Nate Thompson (5th) had one apiece.

Price stopped 32 of 33 shots to earn the win. The Flyers also had 17 attempts blocked and missed the net 18 times. A Shayne Gostisbehere shot early in the third period -- one of the few with layers of traffic taking the goalie's eyes away -- beat him but hit the post.

Couturier (power play, 30th) notched the lone Flyers' goal. James van Riemsdyk (18th) and Claude Giroux (58th) assisted.

Carter Hart wasn't at his absolute peak sharpness in his puck tracking but battled hard and made quality saves in stopping 33 of 35 shots. One of his best stops came against Habs rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who beat Gostisbehere to the outside and then powered in front of the net. Bottom line: Hart gave his team a chance to win, which is all that could be asked.

He had a bit of luck in the first period from his goal post on a Brett Kulak shot and from a whistle on an uncovered puck that the Habs put in the net a second after play was blown dead. The first goal he allowed was a broken play off a blocked shot that went right to Gallagher in the slot. Weber's goal was scored through heavy traffic, and Hart was screened.

"[I saw it] when it was in the net," Hart said of the Weber goal. " I didn’t really see it. I've got to do a better job at finding pucks through traffic, both their goals I didn’t really see, and they were both on the ice, so I think I just got to fight a little bit more and find pucks through traffic."

Only one penalty was called in the game until a scrum after the final buzzer. The Flyers went 1-for-1. Montreal, which entered and exited the game at 26-for-218 (dead last in the NHL at 11.9 percent success) and also entered ranked 25th on road PK, certainly did not mind the fact that virtually the entire game was played at 5-on-5. The Habs now have a 163-144 goal edge at 5-on-5 while the Flyers have given up 164 goals at 5-on-5 compared to the 151 they've scored.

Montreal outplayed the Flyers in the first period, although the Flyers had a 21-20 shot attempt edge (11-8 shots on goal advantage for Montreal). The Flyers attempted a few east-west plays that did not work out, and missed the net on seven attempts. Ultimately, Philly was lucky to get out of the period trailing only 1-0.

"I feel we didn’t have a lot of urgency and wen through the motions. We didn’t play bad, but we didn’t play good," Giroux said.

Despite being officially charged with only one giveaway, the Flyers turned a few too many pucks over high in the defensive zone and did not generate enough sustained pressure on Price at the other end. Hart made several good stops in close.

At 18:21 of the first period, Montreal broke through for a goal. Gallagher pressured Oskar Lindblom into a turnover. Moments later, a Folin shot attempt was blocked by Andrew MacDonald but Tatar jabbed the puck to Gallagher in the slot, who fired the second-chance opportunity between Hart's pads for a 1-0 Montreal lead.

Checking remained tight for the first half of the middle frame but play opened up a bit over the latter minutes as the Flyers had 16 overall shots on goal to 13 by the Habs. The lone goal came at the 4:45 mark.

Couturier (who had won 9 of his first 12 draws) cleanly lost a defensive left circle faceoff to Shaw. The puck was rotated by Domi to the point. Barely keeping the puck into the zone, Weber ripped a center point shot that found its way through multiple bodies (there were both high and low screens on Hart), and into the net.

"I just lost where the pass was going. I couldn’t really see where he was, and I just heard a shot go off and that’s when I sort of dropped down late," Hart said.

To their credit, the Habs didn't just sit on the lead in the third period. They kept pressuring the puck and ended up outshooting the Flyers, 13-9.

Ex-Flyers defenseman Folin was called for holding at 7:27. After a nervous moment in which Gostisbehere was stripped of the puck behind the net on the power play, the Flyers generated some attack the other way. They created a scramble near the net, and Couturier flipped the puck upstairs over Price at 8:42 to narrow the gap to 2-1. Couturier now has achieved back-to-back 30-goal seasons.

The Flyers never really came all that close again to scoring. Montreal did a good job protecting the lead, and won more puck battles that the Flyers. Finally, with Hart pulled for an extra attacker, a too-easy Montreal clear became a stuff-in for Domi into the empty net at the other end at 18:55.

Hart was once again pulled for a 6-on-5. No further plays of consequence ensued, apart from a scrum between Gostisbehere and Montreal's Phillip Danault after the final buzzer. Danault received two minutes for roughing and Gostisbehere got a double minor, but it was academic at that point.

There was no good news for the Flyers on this night, with the exception of the lower wildcard seeded Columbus Blue Jackets losing in regulation to Calgary. Philly lost ground on everyone else, and now has only nine games left. They remain seven points (six standings points plus a ROW tiebreaker disadvantage) behind Columbus.
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