A double from Nick Suzuki was insufficient to force the holding of a final meeting between the two teams.
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 association semifinals.
Alain Vigneault’s men set the tone early in the match, taking advantage of some favorable jumps. After just 28 seconds, Ivan Provorov’s shot hit teammate Travis Konecny and defender Shea Weber, before finding the back of the net. The goal was eventually awarded to Konecny.
Five minutes later, Kevin Hayes managed to outsmart Carey Price with a light shot between the pads, which deflected on Artturi Lehkonen’s stick.
Konecny and Hayes each collected their first goal of the playoffs.
Halfway through the opening round, Nick Suzuki beat Carter Hart on the power play, after a blocked shot from Joel Armia, to cut the lead in half. Jonathan Drouin collected an assist on the game.
Nick Suzuki is congratulated by Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia after his first goal of the game.
Photo : Getty Images / Elsa
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Early in the second period, the Flyers widened the lead to 3-1, again on a deflection. The puck Travis Sanheim sent to the net touched Michael Raffl and ended up behind Price, hampered by his own defenseman Ben Chiarot.
The Drouin-Suzuki tandem replied less than two minutes later. Suzuki completed a superb game from Drouin to score his second goal of the game.
The 20-year-old forward became the first CH rookie to score in two consecutive playoff games since Brendan Gallagher in 2013. Suzuki is also one of the three youngest rookies in the history of the organization, along with Henri Richard and Claude Lemieux, to have registered more than one goal in a playoff game.
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The Habs came close to drawing the tie with 6.49 minutes remaining in the clash, when a shot from Tomas Tatar hit Hart’s stick handle before going out of bounds.
Kirk Muller’s troops dominated 33-17 in shots. Hart stopped 31 pucks against 14 for Price.
The Canadian was deprived of Gallagher’s services, victim of a broken jaw after taking a double check from defenseman Matt Niskanen. In Gallagher’s absence, Alex Belzile was back in training.
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