The Philadelphia Flyers sustained a 5-0 road loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Monday night to drop to 1-1-0 in the preseason. The game was up for grabs entering the third period before a four-goal deluge by the Habs turned the contest into a blowout.
The game was scoreless at the end of a penalty-filled first period. At 8:18 of the second period, Luke Tuch fired home a goal from the deep slot for a 1-0 Montreal lead. Jared Davidson drew the lone assist.
In the third period, Montreal exploited the Flyers' blueline group and strafed veteran goal Cal Petersen for four tallies: David Savard at 3:06, Emil Heineman at 3:56, Josh Anderson at 5:39 and Alex Barre-Boulet on a redirect at 17:45. Heineman (1g, 1a), Barre-Boulet (1g, 1a) and Oliver Kapanen (2a) finished with multi-point games when all was said and done.
Training camp tryout Eetu Makiniemi got the start in goal for the Flyers. He stopped 13 of 14 shots before being replaced by Petersen at 11:14 of the second period. Petersen allowed four goals on 12 shots.
Cayden Primeau started in net for Montreal. Officially, he stopped all 13 shots he faced, but benefitted from a seemingly legitimate goal being disallowed. Jakub Dobes entered the game at 11:14 of the second period, along with the Flyers' Petersen. Dobes stopped all 12 shots the Flyers put on his net.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
Tyson Foerster - Sean Couturier - Anthony Richard
Olle Lycksell - Ryan Poehling - Bobby Brink
Oscar Eklind - Scott Laughton - Massimo Rizzo
Elliot Desnoyers- Jacob Gaucher - Nicolas Deslauriers
Egor Zamula - Rasmus Ristolainen
Hunter McDonald - Olver Bonk
Louie Belpedio - Ronnie Attard
Eetu Makiniemi
[Cal Petersen)
POSTGAME 5
1) In the opening minute of the game, Nicolas Deslauriers and Lucas Condetta mixed it up in the right corner of the Montreal zone. The Flyers received a power play on an extra unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Contetta. They had some decent puck movement but no high-grade chances. Shortly thereafter, at 3:44, the Flyers obtained another power play.
2) Later in the first period, the Flyers killed off a full two minute 5-on-3 penalty. After it expired, Ronnie Attard (who had exited the box) was denied by Primeau on a 2-on-1 counterattack.
3) On the Flyers next power play, a would-be goal was disallowed for goaltender interference. This appeared to be a missed call with the near-side referee out of position.
4) The game was rather low-event for two periods. There were just 16 shots on goal apiece through 40 minutes. With a 1-0 score, it was anyone's game entering the final 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the wheels fell in the first six minutes of the third period, turning a one-goal deficit into a four-goal crater.
5) Positives for the Flyers: Brink had some good shifts despite being one of just two Flyers (Lycksell was the other) to play on both Sunday and Monday. Ristolainen had a solid game, and his pairing with Egor Zamula was fairly steady. Makiniemi made some nice saves over his 31 minutes in net.
Negatives: The Flyers' young defensemen struggled at times during the game. With neither Travis Konecny nor most of Sunday's standouts (Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, Matvei Michkov and Jett Luchanko) in the lineup on Monday, the offensive attack didn't generate more than sporadic attack. Petersen wasn't solely to blame but he couldn't stop the bleeding after the Canadiens opened a 2-0 lead.
