No one really expected the Flyers to sweep Montreal right out of the way in the Eastern Conference Finals, did they? Even after the Flyers took care of business against the Canadiens in the first two games in Philadelphia, they still had to go to Montreal for the next two games, and you know that Canadien fans had their sights set on this game since Game 7 of the second round came to a close. Tonight, Montreal was the better team as they finally figured out how to get a puck past Michael Leighton and stop the Philadelphia attack at Jaroslav Halak, as they cruised to a 5-1 victory that cut the Flyer lead in the series to 2-1.
Over the past two games, the Canadiens have said that they need to get more people in front of the net to create chances while they're on offense. Tonight, they were able to work that plan with extreme precision from their very first goal on. Mike Cammalleri finally got his first goal of the series in the first period to start things off for Montreal, and it was all downhill for the Flyers after that. Tom Pyatt added a second goal in traffic later in the first to put Montreal up 2-0, and the Canadiens weren't done yet, scoring twice more to put the game out of reach by early in the third period and then adding one final goal as the final period came to a close.
This game wasn't all on Michael Leighton, though. To be honest, he played well and never gave up. He made several good saves, but when there's traffic in front of the net, and bounces are going the wrong way after going the right way for the first two games, there's not much you can do about that. It also didn't help that Chris Pronger's turnover in the first period allowed Montreal to take a 2-0 lead into the first intermission and gave them even more momentum heading into the second period. All in all, it was just a poor game from the Flyers, who have shown much more than what they did tonight in the playoffs.
In the long run, this game didn't really prove anything. Most people knew that the Canadiens weren't going to go down without a fight, because they've done just that in the first two rounds of the playoffs. They came back from a 3-1 hole against the top team in the Eastern Conference and a 3-2 hole against the defending Stanley Cup Champions. Montreal is a tough team to finish off, and they showed that again tonight. This series isn't going to be an easy one to finish for either team.
On the opposite side of the coin, the Flyers clearly aren't as poor of a team as they were tonight. They didn't get the bounces tonight, and they allowed Montreal to create traffic in front of Michael Leighton, which were two things that they had going their way in the first two games of this series. However, just as most people knew that Montreal wasn't going to go away, those same people knew that the Flyers weren't going to win every game in the Eastern Conference Finals by shutout and they would have to play with their backs against the wall at some point and time. Tonight wasn't pretty for Philadelphia, but I think they needed it. The Canadiens came out at home for the first time in ten days and hit the Flyers right in the mouth. Now, the ball is back in Philadelphia's court. Game 4 is Saturday afternoon, and a win by the Flyers gives them a chance to close out the series in Philadelphia in Game 5.
I think the Flyers would love a chance to close things out that way, and I certainly wouldn't mind seeing it, either.
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