FINAL | Round 1, Game 3 | Sunday August 16, 2020

Flyers lead series tied 2-1

Canadiens Lineup

Tomas Tatar – Nick Suzuki – Brendan Gallagher

Jonathan Drouin – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Max Domi

Paul Byron – Phillip Danault – Artturi Lehkonen

Joel Armia – Jake Evans – Alex Belzile

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Brett Kulak – Jeff Petry

Xavier Ouellet – Victor Mete

Carey Price – Charlie Lindgren

Ryan Poehling, Charles Hudon, Christian Folin, Noah Juulsen, Victor Olofsson, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven, Jordan Weal, Dale Weise

Ineligible

Alexander Romanov

Game Report

Can’t win if you don’t score. And you can’t score if you don’t create any opportunities. That was the story of tonight’s game for the Canadiens.

Montreal managed just three high-danger scoring chances for the entire game. Just three. That’s what you might expect per period.

So it was a light night of work for Flyers goaltender Carter Hart. His defence blocked more shots than Hart made saves.

Impressive defensive-first game by the Flyers. They actually blocked more shots (24) than Hart had saves (23).

A true team shut-out.

— John Shannon (@JShannonhl) August 17, 2020

And this followed a game where the Canadiens had chased Hart from the net after giving up four goals on 26 shots. Alain Vigneault, concerned about his young goaltender’s confidence tossed up a smoke screen, embarrassing himself y whining about the members of the Habs power-play.

It was a huge missed opportunity for the Canadiens who did nothing to test Hart and further erode his confidence. Habs forwards hit four posts but got no traffic in front of Hart, nor got to loose pucks for second chance opportunities. 

The Flyers outhit the Canadiens by a healthy margin. Too few Habs forwards were willing to pay the price in this game. And too many unnecessary penalties didn’t allow Montreal to develop any pace.

Philadelphia had double the number of high-scoring chances of Montreal but Carey Price was solid once again. The only Flyers goal on the night started with a lost faceoff by Phillip Danault. The puck double deflected off the stick of Ben Chiarot and the body of Jake Voracek. 

Price was also a major contributor to the Habs penalty-kill which was perfect on six Flyers opportunities. Shea Weber and Ben Chiarot also deserve a healthy share of credit.

Up front Jesperi Kotkaniemi continues to be the Canadiens best forward. Kotkaniemi led the forwards in ice-time with 19:32, and came the closest to lighting the lamp with his shots twice finding the iron.

The Habs and Flyers will play game four of the series on Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 pm.  

Plus / Minus

▲  Carey Price, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Nick Suzuki

▼  Max Domi, Phillip Danault, Paul Byron, Alex Belzile