HABS ON ROAD TOWARD WILD-CARD SPOT
Solid defence and opportunistic offence help Montreal hold off host Philadelphia
The Canadiens got back on the winning track as they played a near-perfect road game to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
“They’re a good offensive team, and they’re good with the puck behind the net (and in) front, and I thought we did a really good job in those areas,” coach Claude Julien said. “On their rushes, I thought we did a great job of backchecking at the blue-line so that when they curled up and looked for a trailer, we had that covered. Defensively, we were solid and when we had those opportunities, we made the most of it.”
Brendan Gallagher and Shea Weber cashed in on the offensive opportunities.
Gallagher’s 31st goal came off a rebound in the first period, while Max Domi set up Weber for a shot from the blue-line in the second period after Andrew Shaw won a draw against the Flyers’ Sean Couturier, who is one of the NHL’s best in the faceoff circle.
Phillip Danault didn’t get an assist on Gallagher’s opening goal, but, as has been the case in so many games this season, he made the play possible.
“Phil did a good holding the puck as we were coming off the bench,” Gallagher said. “Then Tuna (Tomas Tatar) created chaos in front and I was able to get a shot through.”
“The guys played a good game from start to finish and obviously it always starts with (Carey Price). He made some unbelievable saves, and he was very calm out there. It was a good win, but we have to get ready for the next game.”
The Canadiens have to keep winning because they are in a dogfight for one of the remaining playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. Julien admitted there was some scoreboard watching after the Canadiens won.
“You do look afterwards, but you have to look after your own self first,” Julien said. “If you look after your own self, it doesn’t matter what happens.”
While the Canadiens did what they had to do, they didn’t get all the help they needed.
As the Canadiens headed to the dressing room after the win, the Carolina Hurricanes were trailing Pittsburgh 2-1. But Carolina pulled its goalie and Justin Williams scored to tie the game with 1:56 to play. The Hurricanes went on to win in a shootout and they held on to the first wildcard spot with a four-point lead over Montreal and a game in hand.
But the Canadiens did get some help later in the evening when the Calgary Flames defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-2. That left Montreal one point behind Columbus in the battle for the second wild-card spot.
Domi had an empty-net goal and set up Weber for his 12th of the season, while linemate Shaw collected a pair of assists.
The third member of the line is Artturi Lehkonen, who has one goal and no assists in his last 21 games. Lehkonen, who hit a crossbar, had four minutes more of ice time than either of his linemates, and Julien said there was a reason for the extra workload.
“This is a guy we’d like to see more production from,” Julien said. “For some reason, when you look at his shooting percentage, it’s really low. But if you look at how many times he’s hit a post or a crossbar, maybe with a little bit of confidence (his shooting percentage) goes up. But he’s stabilized that line where we’re able to play them against bigger lines and so you’re going to get better defensive play and, overall, you have better balance.”