Just when you thought the Montreal Canadiens could spin another win in their surge up the Atlantic Division ladder, they laid an egg on home ice Saturday in a 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.
Carter Hart made 33 saves in the win for the Flyers who have won three straight.
Nolan Patrick scored twice in the third to help the Flyers defeat Habs – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
“It means a lot for us,” Hart said. “When we were losing, that’s not a fun thing to go through but guys kept their spirits up and they were very positive. And when we were losing it wasn’t by much; it was just like one or two couple of bounces. And now those bounces are starting to go our way and we’re starting to force their hand and make sure they’re going our way by playing 60-minute hockey.”
Nolan Patrick struck twice in the third period for two of the Flyers’ goals.
“Obviously that’s a huge win for us before the break,” Patrick said.
The Habs had a four-game winning streak come to an end in the loss.
Montreal out shot the Flyers, 21-1, in the first period; their futility on the power play was extended with an empty opportunity in the middle frame.
“We’re not a threat on the power play, especially tonight,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said. “We got a little bit better in the last few games where we had some, but tonight was one power play and it was a dead one.”
Max Domi and Brett Kulak scored for the Canadiens.
“I don’t know what it was,” Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber said. “We definitely had a great start. Maybe they got going a little bit after that. It’s hard to say what exactly it was, but they got themselves going somehow and it was too late by the time we got going.”
Travis Konecny and James van Riemsdyk also scored for Philadelphia.
“The first period, Carter obviously gave us a chance to be even and that was a huge part of the game,” Flyers head coach Scott Gordon said. “I don’t have to say it, but obviously they were the better team in the first period. It wasn’t close, and I thought we got better as the game went on. Maybe a little bit might have been fatigue on their part, having traveled, but I have to give our guys credit too because we didn’t have a whole lot going on in the first period and then [we] found a way to pick it up after.”
Michael Raffl added an empty-net goal to close out the scoring.
[WATCH: All Flyers vs. Canadiens highlights]
Antti Niemi made 19 saves for the loss.
“I thought we were skating really well. We pride ourselves on our speed and quick, quick play, so I actually thought the energy was up in the room before the game, coming into the game, so I didn’t think the back-to-back affected us too much,” Kulak said.
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