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

The Flyers had managed to retake the series lead on Sunday night, with a tightly-played 1-0 shutout against Montreal, but the question of whether or not they could maintain the elements that got them that hard-fought success into game four.  For his part, Alain Vigneault took James van Riemsdyk out of the lineup and re-inserted Joel Farabee. Connor Bunnaman also drew in for Nicolas Aube-Kubel, who may have possibly been a bit beaten up after blocking quite a few shots on Sunday.

It seemed as thought the lessons learned in the past two games stuck with the Flyers, because they came out and played a very similar style to their last win: stingy, tight hockey, heavy on defense, not allowing Montreal to penetrate the zone or get any traction in the neutral zone.

Michael Raffl struck first on the scoreboard when Sean Couturier made a neat little drop pass and Raffl sniped a shot to the far top corner of Carey Price‘s net, aided in part by a friendly-fire screen from Ben Chiarot.

Both teams went through a full line blender in this game, with Vigneault constantly switching around players and Canadiens head coach Kirk Muller doing his best to match the new combinations. Philadelphia continued to control the pace and play into the second period, but Montreal started to get their legs under them a little bit about halfway through the frame. The Flyers’ defenders took over and kept the Canadiens away from Carter Hart.

Philippe Myers doubled Philadelphia’s score when he skated the puck into the zone, fended off Brett Kulak‘s smothering defense and shot the puck from the boards toward Price. The puck caught just the heel of Kulak’s blade and caromed off Price’s stick, taking an odd bounce backwards and into the net.

For the remainder of the game, Montreal returned to looking disinterested and unmotivated. It was an odd situation, given that the Flyers didn’t have a huge lead in the game, nor did they yet have a commanding lead in the series. Whatever the reason, the Flyers continued their patient, grinding style of play and wore Montreal down. Guys like Robert Hagg blocked big shots from Shea Weber, and helped Hart to his second consecutive playoff shutout.

The Canadiens have their backs against the wall for game five on Wednesday, where they face a win-or-go-home situation. With their star players still coming up empty on the score sheet, the Flyers will have a prime opportunity to advance to the next round. At the same time, Philadelphia needs to be prepared for the possibility that the team they face tomorrow will have a lot more grit and determination when facing elimination.

Plus / Minus

▲  Michael Raffl, Robert Hagg, Ivan Provorov, Phil Myers

▼  Scott Laughton