Canadians rout Flyers
Montreal evens series at 1
TORONTO (AP) — Montreal won this playoff game for its absent coach.
Kirk Muller and the rest of the Canadiens just had to dedicate the Game 2 victory to Claude Julien.
“To Claude, I’m sure you’re listening, this win’s for you,” Muller said.
Tomas Tatar and Jesperi Kotkaniemi each scored twice, Carey Price stopped 30 shots and the Canadiens rebounded without Julien to rout the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0 to tie the series at a game apiece.
“We have a job and he would expect that as well,” forward Max Domi said.
“So we were just trying to stay focused here and get ready to go. And I think we did a great job of that.”
Julien was home in Montreal a day after a stent was placed in a coronary artery. The team said doctors expect a full recovery.
Julien was rushed to St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto overnight Wednesday with chest pain. He had surgery Thursday. Because Julien left the NHL bubble in Toronto, he will have to follow quarantine protocol if he wishes to re-enter it. Muller will serve as interim head coach for the rest of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.
“Claude steers the ship for us and he guides what we do out there,” defenseman Ben Chiarot said. “We’ll just play as hard as we can for him.” Game 3 is Sunday night. The Canadiens roughed up Flyers goalie Carter Hart, who turned 22 on Thursday, and scored four goals through two periods to send him to the bench.
The Canadiens continued their sensational surge through Toronto hockey and bounced back fine after a 2-1 Game 1 loss. Montreal was the last team in the East to qualify for the expanded playoffs, and then needed four games to win its best-of-five series over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Hart grew up in Alberta and was a long-time fan of Price, who dazzled in the NHL restart. Price had a shutout against the Penguins and had an elite series that keyed the series win. Hart was just 6 years old when the Canadiens made Price a first-round pick in the 2005 draft. He was 22 for just a day when he got benched against idol.
“At this time of the year, with the importance of the game, we certainly don’t expect that,” Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said.
Tatar needed only 1:02 into the game to score, and Kotkaniemi connected later in the period. Tatar again just 1:30 into the second period. Joel Armia knocked out Hart with his fourth goal.
“I think we really played the right way from the get-go. We jumped on them right out of the gate,” Tatar said.
AVALANCHE 3, COYOTES 2
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche expected a big push from Arizona after the Coyotes spent most of Game 1 on their heels.
Colorado withstood the early blows, counter punched with a couple of goals and delivered the late knockout shot to take a commanding lead in the series.
Andre Burakovsky scored late in the third period, Philipp Grubauer stopped 30 shots and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Arizona Coyotes 3-2 on Friday to take a 2-0 lead in their Stanley Cup playoff series.
“I thought today we were a little too distracted as the game went on and kind of reeled it back in after the second period, kind of got back what we needed to do,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “The third wasn’t perfect either, but at least we were focused on what we had to do.”