FINAL | Round 1 – Game 5 | Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Flyers Lead Series 3-2

Flyers Lineup

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek

Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

Connor Bunnaman – Derek Grant – Joel Farabee

Michael Raffl – Nate Thompson – Tyler Pitlick

Ivan Provorov – Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim – Philippe Myers

Robert Hagg – Justin Braun

Carter Hart – Brian Elliott

Andy Welinski, Andy Andreoff, Morgan Frost, Egor Zamula, Mark Friedman, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, James van Riemsdyk, Alex Lyon, Kirill Ustimenko, Oskar Lindblom, Shayne Gostisbehere

None

Game Report

With a two-game lead in this series, the Flyers had the opportunity tonight to wrap things up early and get some rest for a few days before the start of the next round. Instead, the Canadiens came out of the gate at full tilt, got an early goal, and play completely devolved from there.

Joel Armia scooped up a big rebound off the end boards and potted the game’s first goal while the Habs were shorthanded. Brendan Gallagher made his presence known early, agitating his opponent at every opportunity after spending a significant amount of time nailed to the bench at the end of the last game.

Both teams quickly got under each other’s skin, and both teams were penalized early and often. Gallagher sat for high-sticking, then Jakub Voracek did the same but with an extra two minutes for drawing blood on Nick Suzuki. Kevin Hayes tried to even the score with a shorthanded breakaway, but was stoned by Carey Price.

The middle frame is where everything started to get messy. Early in the period, Jesperi Kotkaniemi finished a hard check on Travis Sanheim against the boards, but Sanheim’s body had turned away from Kotkaniemi, resulting in a pretty hard hit into the glass and a cut from his visor. In a controversial call, Kotkaniemi was given a five-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct to end his night.

Voracek then scored twice on the ensuing five-minute power play: a one-timer off of a no-look pass from Claude Giroux that also caught Ben Chiarot’s skate, and then another shot banked directly off of Chiarot’s skate in front of the net. 

But the Flyers didn’t hold the lead for long, as Armia bagged his second goal of the night by getting the puck up high on Carter Hart‘s shoulder and bouncing it into the Flyers net. Then Gallagher finally scored his first goal of the postseason as he batted down the puck from mid-air off of a short pass by Suzuki on a power play. Suzuki then beat Hart himself to give the Canadiens a two-goal lead, and just as the Philadelphia netminder was making his way off the ice in exchange for Brian Elliott, head coach Alain Vigneault beckoned him over to the bench, asked if he was okay, challenged the goal for an offside call, won it, and sent Hart back into the crease.

Philadelphia did not quit in the third period, and did their best to keep pace with Montreal’s desperation.  The Flyers managed to put up a flurry of activity in front of Price, but couldn’t get anything to go in. Then, on a power play of all things, Joel Farabee tipped in a shot to tie the game at 3-3. Suzuki played spoiler 22 seconds later, however, when he accepted a drop pass from Jonathan Drouin down low and beat Hart cleanly. An empty-netter by Philip Danault put a final stamp on the game and helped Montreal avoid elimination.

The two teams will meet again on Friday, in another win-or-go-home situation for the Canadiens. Expect there to be plenty of physicality, from which the Flyers will need to remain disciplined if they want to advance.

Plus / Minus

▲  Kevin Hayes, Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek

▼  Carter Hart, Nate Thompson