Oct 12 Montreal Canadiens Maintain Regular Season Dominance Over Flyers With 5-3 Win in Philly

After a 6-1 drubbing of the Toronto Mapleleafs on Saturday that saw the Koivu line rack up 10 points for the night, one wondered which Montreal Canadiens team would show up tonight to face off against the Philadelphia Flyers, Saturday's dominating juggernaut or the tentative unsynchronized one that fell to Buffalo in overtime the night before. The answer was both, but luckily the former got the job done.

After a scoreless first period that had fans wondering if the Canadiens left all their moves in Toronto, they quickly remedied this situation when Andrei Kostitsyn scored only 54 seconds into the 2nd on a snap shot that rang off the inside of the post,beating Martin Biron on the glove side. The rule of thumb for coach Carbonneau had to be to shoot at Biron often. Biron, the Habs' arch nemesis during the playoffs last year has been struggling out of the gate and was benched in his first game after letting four quick goals get past him. Less than two minutes later, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards scored a goal each putting the Flyers up 2-1 going into the third.

Then the Big Red Machine showed up. Montreal would score the next 3 goals putting Montreal ahead for good. Roman Hamrlik rushing the net was passed a seeing eye pass by Alex Kovalev to tie the game and less than 2 minutes later, Mike Komisarek got his first of the year when his shot from the point took a bounce in front of the net and hopped past Biron. Robert Lang would get his second goal in as many games when he received an amazing pass from Sergei Kostitsyn on the fly and one timed it past a helpless Biron.

Lang's goal came while the teams were playing 4 a side  and when the Flyers were on the man advantage a minute later, Simon Gagné potted one in, cutting the lead to one goal. When the Flyers tried to go all out by pulling Biron for the extra attacker, Philadelphia was caught in their own zone and in a competition for puck possession that ensued inside the Flyers' blue line, Steve Begin took a backhanded wedge like chip-shot that lobbed over the Flyers defenders and into the empty net, putting the game out of reach for good.

The Canadiens, as most good teams do, and don't kid yourselves, this team is good, found a way to win on a night that didn't look like it had started out this way.

There seems to be a healthy atmosphere of every line thinking that they can be the difference maker or points leaders on any given night and it makes every shift a promising one for players and fans alike.

With this win, the Canadiens maintain the unusual hold they have over the Flyers in regular season as they are 7-0-1 in the last eight games they have met. The Habs, and Carey Price, who was named the games 3rd star after having faced 32 shots, surely wanted to pass a message on to Philly, perhaps saying "not this year, boys" and did so, at least for tonight with this impressive come from behind 5-3 win.

The Canadiens, who win or lose tonight, would have gone home with a .500 record during their road trip with the overtime loss in Buffalo and the win in Toronto, but now with tonight's victory, they head to the Bell Centre having earned 5 out of a possible 6 points. Waiting for them for their home opener will be Michael Ryder and the Boston Bruins. The ex Hab has already tallied a goal and 2 assists in 2 games with his new team and will surely like to add to those totals against the team that no longer had him in their plans.

If I may be so bold, La Cage Aux Sports restaurant chain (which has the ongoing contest that offers free chicken wings after any game in which the Habs score 5 goals or more) had better look for some loopholes in this contest offer or at least invest in some chicken stocks...no pun intended.

pic from habsinsideout.com

Tags: canadiens \ dominance \ flyers \ montreal \ philly \ regular \ season