Carey Price shines as the Montreal Canadiens shutout the Philadelphia Flyers
The Montreal Canadiens continued their impressive winning run by extending their win streak to four games after defeating the red hot Philadelphia Flyers by a score of 3-0 in Montreal on Tuesday 16 November.
How it happened
The Montreal Canadiens' power play, which struggled in the early part of the season, came alive against the Philadelphia Flyers going 2-for-8 on the night, while the Flyers power play was held scoreless
on all six opportunities.
Carey Price got his second Tuesday-night shutout by stopping all 41 shots that the Flyers threw at him. The shutout comes exactly one week after Price made 34 saves to blank the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canadiens scored a single goal in each period. The first came while the Canadiens were enjoying a 5-on-3 power play. Mike Cammalleri slipped into the slot unnoticed as Gionta fired a perfect pass from
the corner for Cammalleri to snap home.
Tomas Plekanec got the lone goal of the second period after firing a speculative shot that somehow got through Sergei Bobrovsky in the Flyers' goal.
Gionta got the Canadiens' third goal while on the power play after he banked a backhand shot off the skate of Flyers defenceman Kimmo Timonen and in.
What they're saying
The Flyers' Darroll Powe was involved in several questionable hits. One in particular drew the ire of Habs players. Powe was not penalized for a hit delivered to Jeff Halpern by the boards
who ended up leaving the ice, and Maxim Lapierre took exception and challenged Powe to a tussle moments later.
"It was a hit from behind," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin told reporters after the game. "Unfortunately, the referee didn't see it that way."
Brian Gionta put in a particularly strong performance for the Canadiens, collecting a goal and two assists and lifting his season total to 11 points. Gionta now has four goals in his last five games after
scoring just one in his first 13.
"The production is there," he said. "Earlier in the year, I thought my game was right there but the prediction wasn't. So I just tried to build off of that."
The Canadiens took a step in avenging their 4-1 series play-off defeat at the hands of the Flyers last season by getting the win. The game turned ugly by the end as team discipline disintegrated with several
misconduct penalties being handed out to both teams. It will make for an interesting rematch when the teams face each other in less than a week's time next Monday 22 November.
In the meantime, the Flyers get set to host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday 18 November, while the Canadiens face the Nashville Predators.
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