PHILADELPHIA – Jake Allen made 24 saves and the Montreal Canadiens downed the Flyers, 5-2, on Friday night.
“It was one of our best games of the year, just being complete,” Montreal forward Josh Anderson said. “Everyone knew where each other was. We were really balanced tonight, and it showed. When everybody’s in the right spot, it’s easy to play like that. It just looked like everybody was connected.”
For the Flyer, it was their sixth loss in seven games,.
“Played a little bit in the third for a few minutes, but we looked pretty sluggish,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “Sometimes those road trips work against you, you’re coming across the time zones. … As a group, we were sluggish right on through.”
The Canadiens improved to 25-29-4.
Montreal took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from David Savard and Chris Tierney.
Tierney, who was claimed off waivers from the Florida Panthers, scores with five seconds left in the first. It was his first goal with the Habs.
“You feel better when you get on the board,” Tierney said. “I thought the team is playing really well, and I kind of just fed off that. It was a good first win.”
The Flyers dropped to 23-27-10.
Nick Suzuki was credited with a power play goal in the middle frame to make it 3-0 for the Canadiens. The puck deflected off a Flyers’ defenseman.
The Flyers’ Owen Tippett scored nine seconds into the third stanza to make it 3-1.
“I think he’s going to be a really good player for us,” Tortorella said. “You lose another game, you have some questions about certain things, but I look at some other things and where some players are improving as you forecast and you look to the future. That’s an exciting one.”
Jesse Ylonen scored his first career NHL goal in the third to push the Habs lead to 4-1.
“It felt good,” he said. “It’s been a while, so it felt good. … But the main thing is just trying to win the games. I think today I could help the team a little bit in that. That’s the biggest thing, just to get some wins now.”
Anderson scored for Montreal to balloon the lead to 5-1.
Philadelphia’s Ivan Provorov scored to make the 5-2 final.
Carter Hart made 26 saves in the loss.
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