Flyers shut out Canadiens in Game 3, take lead in Eastern First Round

Carter Hart made 23 saves, and the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 in Game 3 to take the lead in their Eastern Conference First Round series at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on Sunday.

Hart's shutout was his first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and came after being pulled in Game 2, when he allowed four goals on 26 shots in a 5-0 loss.

"We all responded," Hart said. "We know that Game 2 wasn't our best, nowhere near our capability of play. That was huge for us to come out and set the tone early and get the first goal there, the only goal of the game, and just continue to battle and outwork them."

WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Canadiens highlights]

Hart (22 years, 3 days) is the youngest player in Flyers history to get a shutout in the playoffs, passing the previous record held by Pete Peeters (22 years, 246 days).

"He's really strong mentally," Philadelphia forward Jakub Voracek said. "He's a young kid that works really hard. He's pretty impressive with the way he bounces back, even since last year. If he has a bad game he always comes back strong. I think that's what good goalies do."

Voracek scored for Philadelphia, the No. 1 seed in the East. The Flyers were 0-for-6 on the power play.

Carey Price, who turned 33 on Sunday, made 19 saves for Montreal, the No. 8 seed. The Canadiens hit the post with a shot five times, including twice by forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi.

"It's the style of game we expected going in," Montreal forward Brendan Gallagher said. "They find a way to put one in our net, we were unable to beat their goaltender. They came out hard in the first period, they had a push, which we expected. After that there were chances both ways. We just didn't do a good enough job of outworking their goaltender or helping ours."

Teams that win Game 3 after an NHL playoff series is tied 1-1 are 215-106 (67 percent) winning a best-of-7 series.

Game 4 will be in Toronto, the Eastern hub city, on Tuesday (3 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, SN, TVAS, NBCSP).

Voracek gave the Flyers a 1-0 lead at 5:21 of the first period. Sean Couturier won a face-off back to defenseman Robert Hagg, who sent a pass along the left wall to forward Claude Giroux. Giroux then shot from the hash marks and the puck deflected off Voracek, who had slipped behind Canadiens defenseman Ben Chiarot.

"It was a set play," Voracek said. "We talked about it. [Giroux] was going to pop and he's going to throw it at the net."

Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said those are the kind of goals teams have to score to be successful in the playoffs.

"It was a greasy hockey game," he said. "Sometimes you get these where guys are working extremely hard, not giving the opposition a lot of room, and you've just got to grease it out. That's what we did. We scored the goal early, Carter made some big saves, and we were able to get the win. We'll learn from it and try to get better next game and go from there."

The Canadiens pushed hard after Voracek's goal, outshooting the Flyers 18-12 during the second and third period.

"The effort was there," Montreal associate coach Kirk Muller said. "Both teams didn't get much. We knew today was going to be a tough game. I thought the first period, they had the power plays and we couldn't get momentum like the last game. But as the game went, what I liked is our guys didn't quit. It was a great effort. We fought through the second and third, hit some posts. One of those goes in, it was a different outcome. … I can honestly say to our players, 'Listen, you didn't quit, you kept going, you kept pushing.' I thought the effort was great from everybody tonight."

NOTES:Hart's shutout is the first in the playoffs by a Flyers goalie since Michal Neuvirth against the Washington Capitals on April 22, 2016. ... The Flyers were 7-0-0 after a loss from Jan. 7 to March 12, when the NHL season was paused due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus. … Gallagher led the Canadiens with three shots on goal. He leads the NHL with 31 shots in the playoffs but has not scored a goal.

NHL.com columnist Dave Stubbs contributed to this report