Postgame 5: Late Rally Falls Short in 4-3 Loss to Habs

The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the Montreal Canadiens, 4-3, at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday evening. The game went to the second period tied at 1-1 before the Habs scored three times in the middle frame. A late charge by the Flyers in the third period cut a three-goal gap to one but fell short.

Nick Suzuki (3rd goal of the season) gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 10:42 of the first period. Kirby Dach was the first to a Jayden Struble rebound and fed Suzuki for the goal.

The Flyers drew even at 17:24. Ryan Poehling made a pass off the boards out to Travis Sanheim (2nd goal of the season) at the point. With traffic on front, the puck appeared to deflect off Montreal's Josh Anderson into the net. Garnet Hathaway earned the second assist.

A deflected point shot that went off Brendan Gallagher (3rd) gave Montreal a 2-1 lead at 4:48 of the second period. The assists went to Logan Mailloux and Josh Anderson.

Montreal expanded the edge to 3-1 at 12:48. Cole Caufield's power play shot from the left side (8th goal of the season) went off Aleksei Kolosov's hip and found the short side. The helpers went to Suzuki and Matheson.

At 16:01, a seeing eye puck made its way from David Savard at the right point to Jake Evans (2nd) down low. From a somewhat tight angle, Evans fired a shot into the net. The assists went to Gallagher and Savard.

The final period was scoreless until Sanheim (second goal of the game, 3rd of the season) moved over the middle and fired home a shot past Cayden Primeau at 17:48. The assists went to Joel Farabee and Nicolas Deslauriers.

The Flyers made things even more interesting with a Travis Konecny goal at 18:17. The assists went to Owen Tippett for his backhand pass to Konecny in front as Tippett swooped around and to Sanheim.

Making his NHL debut, Kolosov stopped 20 of 24 shots. Winning goalie Cayden Primeau denied 23 off 26 shots on goal by Philly.

The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play. They were 1-for-2 on the penalty kill.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

11 Travis Konecny - 14 Sean Couturier - 39 Matvei Michkov
74 Owen Tippett - 27 Noah Cates - 71 Tyson Foerster
21 Scott Laughton - 25 Ryan Poehling - 86 Joel Farabee
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 48 Morgan Frost - 19 Garnet Hathaway

6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 9 Jamie Drysdale
36 Emil Andrae - 77 Erik Johnson

35 Aleksei Kolosov
[33 Samuel Ersson]

PP1: Dysdale, Tippett, Frost, Brink, Michkov
PP2: Andrae, Foerster, Couturier, Laughton, Farabee

Scratches: 5 Egor Zamula (DND), 10 Bobby Brink (DND), 82 Ivan Fedotov (DND).

TURNING POINT

The Flyers needed a kill trailing 2-1 in the second period, and could have generated momentum from it. The ensuing Caufield short-side goal made a manageable situation into a very difficult one.

POSTGAME 5

1) Montreal had four of the game's first five shots on goal and nine of the first 12. Kolosov made a nice save on dangerous Canadiens rookie defenseman Lane Hutson among his 10 saves.

2) The Flyers had two power plays in the first period but could not capitalize. At 7:12, Couturier dropped the gloves behind the net with Arber Xhekaj. Seeler rushed in to defend his teammate. No fight ensued. The only penalty went to Xhekaj for unsportsmanlike conduct. Late in the first period, Oliver Kapanen went off for holding Farabee. First period shots on goal were 11-8 Habs.

3) Suzuki hit the post on a 2-on-0 rush early in the second period. At the other end. A nicely conceived play in the Montreal end nearly resulted in a goal then Drysdale took a high-sticking penalty at 11:05. The resulting Suzuki goal was one that Kolosov would have liked back.

4) Michkov stuck up for himself as he was goaded and slashed by Gallageher. The Flyes rookie was whistled for a retaliatory slash. The penalty was negated shortly thereafter by a Suzuki interference minor in the offensive zone.

5) What John Tortorella describes as "almost plays" -- almost a goal, almost a scoring chance, almost a completed stretch pass, etc. -- continued to plague the Flyers into the third period. For example, the Flyers had several looks at the net but only four shots on goal through the first 10 minutes of the third period.