Flyers Hold Canadiens at Bay for Game 1 Victory

Montreal Canadiens v. Philadelphia Flyers

Game 1 – First Round

 

Lineups:

Montreal Canadiens:

Tomas Tatar — Nick Suzuki — Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin — Jesperi Kotkaniemi — Joel Armia

Paul Byron — Phillip Danault — Artturi Lehkonen

Alex Belzile — Max Domi — Dale Weise

Ben Chiarot — Shea Weber

Brett Kulak — Jeff Petry

Victor Mete — Xavier Ouellet

Carey Price

Charlie Lindgren

Scratched: Charles Hudon, Ryan Poehling, Cale Fleury, Noah Juulsen, Gustav Olofsson, Christian Folin, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven, Jordan Weal

Unfit to play: Jake Evans

 

Philadelphia Flyers:

Claude Giroux — Sean Couturier — Jakub Voracek

Scott Laughton — Kevin Hayes — Travis Konecny

James van Riemsdyk — Derek Grant — Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Connor Bunnaman — Nate Thompson — Tyler Pitlick

Ivan Provorov — Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim — Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg — Justin Braun

Carter Hart

Brian Elliott

Scratched: Andy Andreoff, Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Oskar Lindblom, Mark Friedman, Shayne Gostisbehere, Andy Welinski, Egor Zamula, Alex Lyon, Kirill Ustimenko

Unfit to play: Michael Raffl

 

First Period:

The action started after a Jonathan Drouin penalty for slashing against Claude Giroux. The Flyers wasted little time capitalizing with Ivan Provorov scoring the first goal of the series using a great screen by Jakub Voracek.

Derek Grant almost made it 2-0 when he went in alone on Carey Price, but was stopped, and subsequently pushed into Price. Fortunately Price was left unscathed.

The period ended with coincidental roughing minors on Travis Konecny and Jesperi Kotkaniemi

 

Second Period:

The second opened up with 4 on 4 play which resulted in a nice scoring chance by Brett Kulak for the Canadiens, but he was unable to convert. Giroux later had a glorious chance, but hit the goalpost.

The Canadiens also failed to get a shot on a potential 2 on 0 because…well…you have to see it:

The score really should have been 2-0 at this point but for an amazing save by Carey Price:

Shea Weber equalized the score at 1, but soon after Joel Farabee put the Flyers back up 2-1, and that’s how the period ended.

 

Third Period:

There was not much offensive production at the beginning of the third – the only piece of note were minors given to Max Domi and Farabee, resulting in 4 on 4 play. Soon after,  Artturi Lehkonen took a tripping penalty, setting up a 4 on 3 power play for the Flyers.  Later in the third, Nate Thompson couldn’t bury an open net chance, and the score remained 2-1. Even a last gasp effort of pulling Price at the end could not pull the Canadiens even, as the Flyers take game 1, 2-1.

 

Game 2 is Friday at 3pm Eastern.

Thank you.