You had a feeling that once Mike Richards scored shorthanded in the first period to tie the game that this game was going to start heading in the wrong direction for the Montreal Canadiens. Consider that gut feeling fulfilled as the Philadelphia Flyers are now 20 minutes away from reaching the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1997.
At 3:07 of the second period, Arron Asham was able to wheel and deal and get Habs netminder Jaroslav Halak out of position to break the 1-1 tie. Just a minute and a half later, Jeff Carter would receive a quick pass from behind the net from Mike Richards and rip the snap shot over Halak’s left shoulder and into the net to give the Flyers a 3-1 lead. Montreal would do nothing to help their own cause, taking a couple of bad penalties late even giving Philadelphia an extended 5-on-3 power play. While the Habs would kill it off, spending any inordinate amount of time not playing offense will doom the Canadiens.
Philadelphia, with help from the Habs penalty problems, would outshoot Montreal 12-6 in the second period, giving the Flyers a two period advantage 18-15. It’s happened already in the playoffs, but this is gut check time for Montreal and they’ll need to get a goal fast to try and take the crowd out of the game and seize the momentum.