Goals from Brendan Gallagher, Shea Weber and Max Domi carried the visiting Montreal Canadiens past the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1, on Tuesday night.
Andrew Shaw tallied two assists and Carey Price stopped 32 shots as the Canadiens inched closer to the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Montreal began the night three points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Sean Couturier scored and Carter Hart made 33 saves for the Flyers, who entered the game six points behind Columbus. Philadelphia suffered back-to-back home losses for the first time since early January.
Hart made a couple of sprawling saves with just under four minutes remaining in the first period.
Montreal's Nate Thompson then fired a knuckling slap shot which landed in Hart's chest with 2:58 left.
The Canadiens kept the offensive pressure going and capitalized when Gallagher recorded his 31st goal of the season for a 1-0 lead at 18:21.
Weber put the Canadiens ahead 2-0 at 4:45 of the second with a whistling slap shot through traffic in front of Hart.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux received a pass in front of Price and appeared to be taken down while trying to unleash the shot with 3:23 left in the second. There was no penalty called and the Flyers still trailed by two goals.
In fact, no penalties were called on either team through the first two periods.
With 16:37 left in the third, Philadelphia defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere launched a wrist shot which clanged off the post.
The Flyers earned the first power play of the game with 12:33 to go when Christian Folin was whistled for holding. Couturier responded with a goal to slice the lead in half, 2-1, at 8:42. It gave Couturier his second straight 30-goal season
The Flyers pulled Hart with 1:48 remaining and Domi put the game away with an empty-netter.
--Field Level Media
Montreal | Philadelphia | |
Max Domi 2 | Points | Sean Couturier 1 |
Max Domi 1 | Goals | Sean Couturier 1 |
Andrew Shaw 2 | Assists | Claude Giroux 1 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | Sean Couturier 1 |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | N/A |
Carey Price .970 | Save Percentage | Carter Hart .943 |
Carey Price 32 | Saves | Carter Hart 33 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Montreal | 36 | 3 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 4 | 28 |
Philadelphia | 33 | 1 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 4 | 31 |