Canadiens blank Flyers in Game 2, even Eastern First Round without Julien

Carey Price made 30 saves, and the Montreal Canadiens evened the Eastern Conference First Round by defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0 in Game 2 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Friday.

Tomas Tatar and Jesperi Kotkaniemi each scored two goals for Montreal, the No. 8 seed. Max Domi had three assists for his first NHL postseason points.

Associate coach Kirk Muller coached the Canadiens in place of Claude Julien, who returned to Montreal following the stenting of a coronary artery Thursday. Julien is not expected to return during the series.

"I didn't check my phone (during the game)," Muller said. "After (the victory) I did, and [Julien] was one of the first guys to congratulate us on the big win. For Claude, I'm sure he's listening, this win's for you and your family."

WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Flyers highlights]

Price's seventh postseason shutout tied him for third in Montreal history behind Jacques Plante and Ken Dryden, who each had 10.

Carter Hart allowed four goals on 26 shots for Philadelphia, the No. 1 seed, before being pulled at 17:57 of the second period. Brian Elliott made five saves.

"We got our butts kicked today in all facets of the game," Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said. "They outworked us, they outplayed us, they outexecuted us."

Game 3 of the best-of-7 series is Sunday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS) in Toronto, the Eastern hub city.

Philadelphia forward Travis Konecny did not play the final 8:26 of the third period after being hit in the left ankle with a puck.

Tatar gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 1:02 of the first period when he scored on the rebound of a Brendan Gallagher shot.

Kotkaniemi made it 2-0 at 12:36 when he knocked in the rebound of a Jonathan Drouin shot.

The Canadiens outshot the Flyers 16-6 in the first period. Philadelphia did not have a shot for the first 16:24.

"We got these opportunities in games before, but we weren't fortunate to find a bounce," said Tatar, who scored his first two goals of the postseason after tying Brendan Gallagher for the Canadiens lead this season with 22. "It was nice to find the net. We played the right way from the get-go, jumped out of the gate hard, all-around team effort."

Tatar scored on the power play at 1:25 of the second period to extend the lead to 3-0.

"When they made it 3-0 we had a few chances after that," Flyers captain Claude Giroux said. "Sometimes when you're pressing you give up chances-against. First period, that's where we lost the game; now we're just trying to catch up to them. Wasn't our best effort."

Joel Armia made it 4-0 with 2:03 remaining in the second when his shot from left side deflected off the skate of Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere.

After the goal, Hart was pulled. He made 27 saves in a 2-1 win in Game 1.

"They came out hard, they were winning a lot of footraces, getting on loose pucks," Hart said. "I've got to make a couple more saves. They're a team that plays hard, they crash the net hard. ... We'll just review today and prepare for next game and be better."

Philadelphia had 17 shots at even strength; Montreal had 28.

"There's no doubt that Montreal's will tonight to play the right way and to do the right things was much higher than ours," Vigneault said. "At this time of the year with the importance of the game, you don't expect that. At the end of the day, we're going to have to turn the page and move on and get ready for the next one."

Kotkaniemi scored on the power play at 10:35 of the third for the 5-0 final.

The 20-year-old forward has four goals in six postseason games after scoring six goals in 36 regular-season games for the Canadiens and finishing the season in the American Hockey League.

"No one wants to go down, they're all very proud players," Muller said. "But he did, and he learned from it. ... This is a really tough league, and when you're young you have to learn some stuff. But it made him a better player. He's faster, stronger and his play has shown it. He took it and learned from it. He's gotten to be a better player and he's had a real big impact on our team since we got to Toronto."