Canadiens do damage to Flyers’ aspirations

PHILADELPHIA – There are precious few games left in the NHL season and the Flyers lost a chance to grab points in a disappointing 3-1to the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night.

Center Scott Laughton (#21) of the Philadelphia Flyers defends against a check by Left Wing Thomas Tatar (#90) of the Montreal Canadiens

Carey Price made 32 saves to help the Habs close to within one point of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

“We can win our games and that’s all we can control,” Montreal captain Shea Weber said. “We did our job tonight and we have to take care of Thursday (against the New York Islanders).”

A win would have pushed the Flyers to within four points but the loss keeps six points back of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Max Domi, Brendan Gallagher and Weber struck for the Habs.

“I thought it was a good road game because I thought we respected the Flyers offense and how they create it, and a lot of it is from shooting from everywhere,” Montreal head coach Claude Julien said. “But also behind the net, the slot, the net front, they’re really good, and I thought we did a really good job in that area tonight, to take away that part of it. On the rushes, I thought we did a great job of backchecking, sorting it out at the blue line, when they curled up, when they looked for the trailer, we had that part covered as well. I thought defensively we were solid. We didn’t give them much, and when we had those opportunities, we made the most of it.”

Sean Couturier scored the Flyers only goal.

“We made it a little easy on him,” Couturier said. “He saw a lot of pucks. He’s the type of goalie that when he sees the puck, he makes it look easy.”

[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Flyers highlights]

Carter Hart made 33 saves in the loss.

“I don’t think they’ve said we’re automatically out,” Hart said. “We still have nine games here, and mathematically we’re not out of it so there’s still a chance. That’s what the mindset has to be in this locker room.”