The Flyers are one victory away from moving on in the playoffs. Continuing to seal off the middle of the ice and getting clutch saves when needed, the Flyers skated to a 2-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 of their First Round series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Tuesday.
Michael Raffl put the Flyers ahead early in the first period. Phil Myers added some insurance late in the second stanza. Carter Hart stopped all 29 shots he faced. In a losing cause, Carey Price stopped 20 of 22 shots for Montreal.
TURNING POINT
Two small plays added up to big things for the Flyers. The Flyers took advantage of a Canadiens turnover just outside their blueline and it resulted in Raffl's goal.
MELTZER'S TAKE
* The Flyers did a lot of line combination juggling right off the bat in the first period. They came out playing stifling defense early, too, and notched five of the game's first six shots. Philadelphia took advantage of short ice and good passing from Jakub Voracek to Sean Couturier to Michael Raff resulted in Raffl sniping a goal from the right slot high to Price's blocker side at 6:32.
* Kevin Hayes did a good job creating the game's first power play, as Jesperi Kotkaniemi tripped him. On the ensuing man advantage, Shea Weber just got enough of the puck on a pass from Voracek to Couturier to disrupt a would-be slam dunk.
* Montreal did some line juggling of its own in the second period, while Claude Giroux saw time both with Derek Grant and with the Couturier line among other player shuffles. The Flyers did a stellar PK job on a Scott Laughton tripping penalty and had the lone scoring chance during the two minutes; a backchecking Tomas Tatar got just a piece of a Hayes pass to Raffl.
* At 17:04 of the second period, Myers' partially deflected shot from the right half boards handcuffed Price and found the net. Hart made a tough stop near the end of the period on a double-deflected shot. The Habs improved on retrievals and exits in the second period. But the Flyers were superior on the boards and in creating transitional chances. Overall, the Habs were mostly contained to the perimeter when they were in the Philadelphia zone.
* Montreal continued to tweak combinations to start the third period. Hart made a clutch save on Phillip Danault on a puck that took a Habs-friendly bounce in the slot. Then, on Montreal's second power play, Hart made a big cover of a juggled puck and Nate Thompson blocked a Weber shot.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* The Flyers now have a chance to clinch the series in Game 5 tomorrow night (Wednesday, Aug. 19 at 8 p.m. ET)
* Carter Hart posted his second consecutive playoff shutout - he is the third goaltender in Flyers history with back-to-back postseason shutouts joining Bernie Parent (1975) & Michael Leighton (2010).
* Hart is also the second youngest goalie in NHL history to record back-to-back shutout in the playoffs.
* The team that has scored the first goal in this series has won each game.
* Michael Raffl scored his second goal of the playoffs, a new playoff career high... Jake Voracek posted an assist giving him points (2g-1a) in three of the four games in the series.
* Claude Giroux went a perfect 7-for-7 on face-offs through the first two periods and ended at 71 percent going 10-for-14, while Sean Couturier was 75 percent on face-offs (14-for-19).
* Nine Flyers recorded two or more shots on goal led by Jake Voracek with three shots... Nick Suzuki led all players in the game with six shots.
