Flyers Push Habs to the Brink
By Steve Bell
Carter Hart made 29 saves for his second straight shutout as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 on Tuesday to grab a 3-1 stranglehold in their first-round series.
Michael Raffl and Philippe Myers scored for Philadelphia, which will look to close the Canadiens out in Game 5 of the best-of-seven matchup Wednesday night.
Carey Price stopped 20 shots for the Canadiens, the 24th of 24 teams included in the NHL's restart to its pandemic-delayed season.
Montreal _ which played a near-perfect Game 2 on Friday in a resounding 5-0 victory to even the series 1-1 _ were bested by Hart's 23 saves, 24 blocked shots, three posts and two crossbars Sunday's 1-0 loss in Game 3.
It was more of the same Tuesday for a team that has now been blanked for 129 minutes 25 seconds dating back to Jesperi Kotkaniemi's goal midway through Friday's third period.
Up 1-0 after the opening 20 minutes Tuesday, the Flyers doubled their lead from an unlikely source with 2:56 left in the second.
Myers carried the puck into the Montreal zone and flicked a shot from the sideboards that clipped the stick of Montreal defenceman Brett Kulak, skipped off the ice and handcuffed Price for the defenceman's second of the post-season.
with files from (The Canadian Press)