Kevin Hayes scored a goal and added an assist to lift the Philadelphia Flyers past the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Friday in Toronto, sealing their Eastern Conference quarterfinal series in six games.
Ivan Provorov and Michael Raffl added one goal apiece as the Flyers won a playoff series for the first time since 2012. The top-seeded Flyers will battle the sixth-seeded New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference semifinals, which, like the quarterfinals, will be best-of-seven.
Flyers goaltender Carter Hart, who recorded two shutouts in this series, made 31 saves Friday.
Nick Suzuki scored both goals for the eighth-seeded Canadiens.
Joel Arnia and Jonathan Drouin contributed two assists each for Montreal.
Canadiens goaltender Carey Price stopped 14 of 17 shots.
The Flyers jumped out to a 1-0 lead just 28 seconds into the first period when Provorov ripped a wrist shot through traffic. The puck appeared to deflect off Montreal's Shea Weber and into the net.
Following a power play, the Flyers stayed aggressive and Hayes scored his first goal of the series when he sent the puck through Price's pads for a 2-0 lead at 5:23 of the first.
Suzuki cut the deficit to 2-1 when he corralled a rebound in front and tapped the puck through Hart to score on the power play at 10:03 of the opening period.
The Flyers regained their two-goal advantage when Jakub Voracek sent a crisp pass to Travis Sanheim, who delivered a shot off Raffl at 4:26 of the second.
But Montreal struck quickly at 6:05 as Suzuki registered his second goal to close the gap to 3-2.
The Canadiens nearly tied the game when Tomas Tatar fired a shot from point-blank range off Hart and into the seats at 13:11 in the third.
Montreal pulled Price for an extra skater with 1:50 left but couldn't capitalize despite several good scoring opportunities in the final 30 seconds.
Philadelphia's Matt Niskanen was suspended for the Friday game after cross-checking Brendan Gallagher in Game 5. Gallagher sustained a broken jaw and underwent surgery.
--Field Level Media
Philadelphia | Montreal | |
Kevin Hayes 2 | Points | Nick Suzuki 2 |
Kevin Hayes 1 | Goals | Nick Suzuki 2 |
Kevin Hayes 1 | Assists | Joel Armia 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Nick Suzuki 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Carter Hart .939 | Save Percentage | Carey Price .824 |
Carter Hart 31 | Saves | Carey Price 14 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Philadelphia | 17 | 3 | 0-4 | 1-2 | 4 | 29 |
Montreal | 33 | 2 | 1-2 | 4-4 | 8 | 30 |