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A Hatty for Gally

February 21, 2019, 10:26 PM ET [610 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Last time the Flyers were in town, they made short work of the Habs beating them 5-2 while facing Antti Niemi. Tonight, Philadelphia had the same goaltender but the Sainte-Flanelle didn't. For the second game in a row, Carter Hart was pulled after giving up 3 goals on 9 shots and the poor kid must have felt like a right hoser. The Canadiens came flying out of the gates, with Brendan Gallagher opening the score just 58 seconds in thanks to helpers from Danault (his 30th) and Kulak. A little over 2 minutes later, Jordie Benn served a nice pass to Paul Byron who approached Hart's net as if he was going to shoot before feeding a perfect pass straight in Jesperi Kotkaniemi's wheelhouse which allowed the youngster to get his 11th goal of the season (and 30th point). Up 2-0 the Tricolore didn't slow down and made it 3-0 when Brendan Gallagher bagged his 25th goal of the year from an impossible angle. That was the end of Hart's night and he made way for Brian Elliott who managed to save the 6 shots the Habs put on target before the end of the period. In the dying minutes, Gallagher's incredible hand eye coordination was on full display as he deflected 4 consecutive slappers from the blue line.





Montreal didn't sit on its laurels when the 2nd got underway and carried on pushing. Just before the 3 minutes mark, Gally scored his third of the night (26 on the season) and completed his first career hat-trick. Remember in 2014-2015 when the right winger scored 24 goals and the so called experts pretty much all said; "well, this is luck, Gallagher is not a skilled player he will not be able to repeat this feat"? Then came two gruelling hand injuries and shortened seasons of 19 and 10 goals but once healthy again last year he played the full 82 matchs calendar and got himself 31 goals. With 21 games to go, could he possibly top that? It seems quite likely right now and it will be a much deserved result. Tomas Tatar also managed to get the puck past Brian Elliott to make it 5-0 Canadiens and get us some wings from La Cage aux sports. At the end of 40 minutes, Montreal had 26 shots to Philadelphia's 18 and dominated in the face-off circle (52.4%).

Michael Raffl was the sole scorer in the 3rd period and save the Flyers' honour...A shame for Price who had once again put in a solid effort in net tonight. In the end, quite a few milestones were reached by Habs players tonight:

-Max Domi got himself an assist and therefore now has 53 points making this season his most productive ever;
-Philip Danault got an assist for his 41st point, that's also a career high;
-Artturi Lehkonen or Lehky, as his teammates call him, played his 200th career game tonight;
-Tomas Tatar's goal was his 20th of the season, a 5th consecutive 20 goals season for number 90;
-Brendan Gallagher got his first career hat-trick.

Also on the positive side, the Canadiens' power play did not fail tonight! Of course, they didn't have a single man-advantage all evening (the Flyers' sole infraction was a Konecny slashing call which came at the same time as Gallagher's own slashing call) but saying it like that sounds positive at least. While the Habs banked 2 points tonight, so did the Hurricanes as they came back from a goal down to beat the Panthers. Standings wise, this means that the Habs have a 3 points lead on the Canes (who overtook the Blue Jackets) in the first wild card spot.

The Canadiens will next take on the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Saturday night and chances are they'll be eager to avenge the 4-3 OT loss they suffered against Babcock's team on the 9th of February. After Toronto, they'll have 3 other road games against New Jersey, Detroit and the Rangers...Hopefully, it goes better than the last road trip... It should really considering the opponents are nowhere near as scary as Nashville or Tampa Bay.
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