MONTREAL – The Philadelphia Flyers magical ride to the Stanley Cup finals hit a snag thanks to the Montreal Canadiens who blasted the orange and black 5-1 in Game Three of the Eastern Conference finals but the Flyers are still up 2-1 in the series . Flyers captain Mike Richards summed up the game best from a Flyers perspective.
“It was an old-fashioned ass-kicking. They handed it to us right from the get-go. I don’t know if we felt if we just put our sticks on the ice it was going to be easy, but give them credit; they played hard. They were all over the ice. Maybe we got a little cocky, a little full of ourselves. We didn’t play all that well even in the first couple games.”
Five different players scored for the Habs. Michael Cammalleri scored 7:05 into the game and the rout was one. Tom Pyatt , Dominic Moore , Brian Gionta and Marc-Andre Bergeron also scored for the Canadiens. Simon Gagne scored the lone goal for the Flyers, his seventh goal in seven playoff games.
Turnovers were the story of the night as the Habs turned mistakes into goals and finished with a 38-26 advantage in shots. “Turnovers in any sport will kill you,” said Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette after the game. “We have to do a better job of fighting for the puck and controlling the puck.”
Scott Gomez
Cammalleri now has 13 goals, tops in the postseason. His first period goal ended the Flyers’ streak of 13 straight scores in the postseason, the fifth-longest streak in the NHL playoffs since 1969. Montreal outshot the Flyers 17-9 in the first period and never looked back from a 2-0 first period lead. If the Flyers are going to win the series they will have to get off to better starts. The Flyers have been outshot in all three first periods so far this series.
Game Four is Saturday afternoon in Montreal with Game Five going back to Philadelphia Sunday night.
Contact the author at Brian.Jennings@prohockeynews.com
Contact the photographer at Lewis.Bleiman@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.