The Montreal Canadiens’ adventure in the NHL bubble in Toronto is over.
The Philadelphia Flyers took advantage of a few favorable jumps to quickly take the lead in the scoring and the Habs were unable to pull off the comeback, ultimately losing by a score of 3-2 on Friday in Game 6. of his Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
The Canadian will therefore leave the Fairmount Royal York hotel on Saturday, 27 days after his arrival. The Flyers, who won their first series since 2012, will face the New York Islanders in the Eastern semi-finals.
Ivan Provorov and Kevin Hayes helped the Flyers take control of the game by scoring on favorable puck deflections on Canadiens players early in the game. Michael Raffl was also credited with a goal, while Carter Hart stopped 31 shots.
Nick Suzuki sounded the charge for the Canadian with two goals, each time on assists from Joel Armia and Jonathan Drouin. Carey Price made 14 saves.
For this short-lived duel, the Canadian was deprived of one of his leaders: Brendan Gallagher. The latter suffered a broken jaw when he suffered a double-check from Matt Niskanen in Game 5 on Wednesday. Niskanen was suspended for a game for his gesture.
In the absence of Gallagher, Alex Belzile was back in the formation of the Canadian. For the Flyers, Shayne Gostisbehere replaced Niskanen on the blue line, while forward James van Riemsdyk was back in uniform in place of Connor Bunnaman.
One last breath
The Canadian could hardly have imagined a worse scenario at the start of the game, as the Flyers scored twice on their first three shots, each time during a deflection on Habs players.
Provorov opened the scoring after 28 seconds of play, when his pitch deflected off Shea Weber’s stick. Hayes widened the gap at 5:23, when his pass to the net hit Artturi Lehkonen’s stick before slipping through Price’s pads.
The Canadian replied at 10:03 on the power play. Suzuki backhanded to collect a loose puck in front of Hart’s net.
Price was vigilant afterwards, helping his side to pass two penalties before the end of the first period. He notably frustrated van Riemsdyk at close range. He also played luck early in the second period, when Travis Konecny missed the mark on a breakaway.
The Habs keeper was helpless at 4:26, however, when a throw from Travis Sanheim on a redundant attack deflected on Raffl, hit the post, then bounced off him before crossing the goal line.
Once again, Suzuki stepped in, closing the gap 1:39 later. He took advantage of a perfect throw from Drouin to outsmart Hart from a difficult angle.
The Flyers had their best five-on-five moments early in the third period, delaying the Habs’ final assault for as long as possible.
The Canadian came closest to the tie with 6:49 to go, when a shot from Tomas Tatar hit Hart’s stick handle before going out of bounds.
More details to come
Deflected shot, Flyers lead after 28 seconds
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This time Lehkonen scores in his net
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Suzuki spark opens the machine
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Chiarot lacks brakes, Sanheim takes advantage
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