Nolan Patrick helps lead Philadelphia Flyers to win over Montreal
The Philadelphia Flyers hoped to earn their third win in a row taking on a Montreal Canadians squad who wanted to extend a four game winning streak of their own to five.
Coming into this game with three wins in their last four contests, the Philadelphia Flyers needed to mimic those performances, especially on offense, in order to defeat the Montreal Canadians on the road.
Carter Hart received his fifth consecutive start in-net and opposed Antti Niemi. Niemi was having a lack-luster season after a good 2017-18 campaign, posting a 3.63 Goals-Against Average and a .897 save percentage in 13 games played. The 11 year NHL goaltender also had a stellar 52 save performance in his last start against the Florida Panthers, making it that much more important for Claude Giroux and the Flyers offense to rev up their efforts.
Hart did a good job of keeping the opposition without a goal to begin the contest, negating a dangerous chances from Charles Hudon early on. Montreal went on to control play in almost every aspect on the ice but the 20 year-old net-minder stood tall, single-handedly keeping the game tied halfway through the period. Philadelphia couldn’t register a shot-on-goal until about eight minutes left and were lucky to have Hart bail them out after 20 minutes of play.
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Both teams traded scoring opportunities to start the second stanza, with the Canadians still having the edge in that category. The Flyers received the game’s first power-play with 12:51 to go, but weren’t able to convert on it thanks to some solid saves from Niemi.
Montreal failed to capitalize on a power-play opportunity of their own later on and it proved to cost them in the form of Travis Konecny’s 12th goal of the year. Konecny finally found the back of the net on a rebound attempt after missing the crease several times throughout the game. James van Riemsdyk potted his 12th of the year not long after as well, and Philadelphia had a sudden 2-0 lead heading into the third.
Nolan Patrick would extend the Flyers lead to three on a two-on-one chance with Wayne Simmonds early in the third, but Max Domi responded seconds after to keep the deficit at two for the Habs. Patrick got that lead right back with an absolutely beautiful goal for his second of the game, and after Brett Kulak and Michael Raffl scored late, helped the Flyers get a 5-2 victory.
Philadelphia will enter their nine day bye on a three game winning streak, which will only help the teams’ confidence moving forward. Patrick stole the show in the final period, but Hart was once again the back bone to this Flyers win. He saved 33 of the 35 shots he saw, making key saves that kept the Canadians frustrated on offense. In Patrick’s case, it seems he’s back to being the same player we saw in the second half of last year. His regain of form will only help the team moving forward through the rest of this season and beyond.
dark. Next. Flyers can thank Couturier for recent winning ways.
The Flyers are now 19-23-6 on the season. Next game is on January 28th against the Winnipeg Jets.