Tuesday, August 18, 2020 03:00 PM (ET)

Hart blanks Habs again as Flyers take 3-1 series lead

Field Level Media
Aug 18, 2020

Carter Hart made 29 saves for his second consecutive shutout as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 2-0 on Tuesday afternoon in an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series in Toronto.

Michael Raffl and Philippe Myers scored for the top-seeded Flyers, who took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Philadelphia can advance with a victory on Wednesday in Game 5.

Carey Price made 20 saves for the Canadiens, who have outscored the Flyers 6-5 in the series but have suffered 2-1, 1-0 and 2-0 losses.

Hart was pulled late in the second period of Game 2 last Friday after allowing four goals on 26 shots in a 5-0 defeat.

The second-year goalie has been unbeatable since, stopping 23 shots in a 1-0 victory in Game 3 on Sunday for his first career playoff shutout.

Raffl opened the scoring at 6:32 of the first period. Teammate Jakub Voracek collected the puck just outside the blue line at the left point and fed a pass across the line to Raffl, who kept it in the offensive zone with his skate, kicking the puck ahead to Sean Couturier. He carried the puck to the faceoff dot on the right side before making a drop pass back to Raffl, whose wrist shot from the top of the circle found the upper left corner of the net.

The score remained 1-0 until 17:04 of the second period.

The Flyers' Kevin Hayes gained possession behind his own net and fed Travis Konecny to start a breakout along the left side boards. Konecny skated out of the defensive zone before sending a backhanded pass to Myers at center ice. Myers carried the puck over the blue line and headed toward the right wing boards, where he flipped the puck toward the net from the top of the faceoff circle. The puck deflected off a defenseman's stick, skittered off the ice and over Price's right leg pad before glancing off his stick and bouncing into the net.

The Canadiens were guided for the third consecutive game by associate coach Kirk Muller after head coach Claude Julien was forced to return to Montreal following the stenting of a coronary artery last Thursday.

--Field Level Media

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