Provorov’s OT beauty nets another Flyers win
MONTREAL » Ivan Provorov got the Flyers another win with one impressive move.
Provorov scored 31 seconds into overtime as the Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens
4-3 Saturday for their fourth straight victory.
Oskar Lindblom, Kevin Hayes and Travis Konecny also scored for the Flyers (157-5), who were coming off a 6-1 win over Detroit Friday. Brian Elliott made 39 saves.
Provorov got past Max Domi with a nifty dangle in the offensive zone, and then beat Keith Kinkaid for his sixth of the season. It was the 36th career goal for the
22-year-old defenseman. “Our whole bench was yelling that it was a forward playing defense as Provorov went down,” Konecny said. “It’s not surprising because he did that in junior a lot. He has a lot of skill.”
The Canadiens (11-9-6) dropped their seventh consecutive game. Tomas Tatar had two goals, and Joel Armia also scored. Kinkaid stopped
25 shots.
“It feels like everything is going against us right now,” forward Nick Cousins said. “We’re not really getting many breaks. I thought this game was a step in the right direction. We got one point but there are no moral victories here.”
Montreal star Carey Price, who conceded 16 goals in his past three games, rested. Price will start Sunday night at Boston.
The Flyers has earned at least a point in six straight contests (5-0-1).
The Canadiens got off to a fast start. Armia stormed down the wing and beat Elliott on the blocker side for his ninth goal 19 seconds into the game.
The teams exchanged three goals in a 72-second span in the second period.
Lindblom tied it with his team-leading 11th at 7:47. He deflected Justin Braun’s shot from along the half wall.
Tatar responded 27 seconds later with his first goal in seven games. The first-line winger blocked Shea Weber’s slap shot with his back before beating an out-of-position Elliott.
Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry gave the puck away needlessly in his own zone, which led to the 2-2 equalizer from Hayes at 8:59 on a top-corner shot from the slot.
Konecny completed a nice passing play between Claude Giroux and Michael Raffl to give Philadelphia a 3-2 lead just 1:34 into the third.
The Canadiens put together a quick response. Tatar got his ninth goal just 11 seconds into Provorov’s tripping penalty.
“We showed character throughout the 60 minutes,” Tatar said. “We were pretty happy with our game, how it went. It hurts that it didn’t go our way in overtime.
“We can build on a lot of positives from today.”
The Canadiens gave up 20 goals in their previous three games, forcing coach Claude Julien to tinker with his defensive pairings.
Montreal recalled defenseman Gustav Olofsson from the minors. The 6-3 Swede, who was drafted by the Minnesota Wild in 2013, made his Canadiens debut playing alongside rookie Cale Fleury.
“Much better this afternoon than recently,” Julien said. “We were much better defensively against a very dangerous team offensively. We didn’t give up quite as many high-quality chances.