Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A look at the standings before Tuesday night’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Center indicated a mismatch between the Eastern Conference’s top team in the Habs and the visitors’ last-place team. One would assume that the final score of 5-4 in favor of the Flyers would leave Habs fans seriously disappointed. However, the three goals saw the home team beat the Flyers in the first ten minutes of the game, but in the end they probably only did so to a small extent.
Summary of the game
The Canadiens even took the lead with four straight goals despite the initial three-goal deficit. Two Flyers goals came from the stick of Bobby Brink, who also opened the scoring two minutes into the game. However, in a parallel universe, Brink could have been the scapegoat.
With the score tied 3–3 in the second, Brink mistakenly struck out Ivan Demidov in the offensive zone, resulting in a power play and Demidov retaliating by beating Flyers goalie Dan Vladar for the go-ahead goal.
Given how much momentum had shifted, the general sentiment was that the Canadiens would run away with it at that point. However, Flyers rookie Nikita Grebenkin tied things up at 4-4 midway through the third when he beat a stickless Sam Montembeault for his first-ever NHL goal.
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Earlier in the match, Montembeault had lost his stick when it got stuck in teammate Alexandre Carrier’s skate, making the goalkeeper’s bad luck a recurring theme in this action. Based on Montembeault’s well-documented struggle this season, heading into the game, you’d be forgiven for assuming head coach Martin St. Louis would bench him after the poor start. However, with a total of 38 saves (to Vladar’s 16), Montembeault strangely kept the Habs in the game for a long time. His stats may not have earned him a star-of-the-game award, but without him they certainly wouldn’t have gotten that one point: Trevor Zegras scored the only goal in the shootout, on a night when they showed up late, if at all.
Kirby Dach finally got the Canadiens on the board early in the second inning. He fired in a Noah Dobson shot that came straight at him behind the net, catching Vladar looking the wrong way. Dach also tied things up after Nick Suzuki got the Habs within one. Defenseman Lane Hutson took out just about everyone as he skated behind the net, setting up Dach on the side of the net for the relatively easy tap-in. About 2.5 minutes later, Demidov scored the equalizer, paving the way for Grebenkin’s equalizer and the third straight overtime game for the Habs, who suffered their first extra-frame defeat this season.
The now 9-3-1 Canadiens visit the New Jersey Devils on Thursday. The 7-5-1 Flyers next play the Nashville Predators, also on the road, also on Thursday.
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