Canadiens Beat Flyers Again, 5-3 Philadelphia drops seventh straight game

Stevens postgame press conference: FlyersTV

Richards and Timonen postgame: FlyersTV

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(Philadelphia, PA) – Alex Kovalev tallied a goal and two assists and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Flyers for the second time in two nights, 5-3 at the Wachovia Center on Sunday night.

With the game tied 2-2 in the second period, Montreal scored a pair of goals to take the lead.

First it was Michael Ryder, who found a loose puck off of the stick of Kovalev and fired it past a diving Antero Niittymaki to make it 3-2.

Jim Vandermeer and Josh Gorges are separated during the final moments of the first period. (Jack Cassidy)

Saku Koivu’s goal on a two-man advantage gave the Canadiens the two-goal cushion through 40 minutes.

“They’ve got the best power play in the league, so a couple of bad penalties and that was the game,” said Kimmo Timonen.

Montreal’s penalty-killing kept Philadelphia from getting back into the game after the Koivu goal. The Flyers had four straight power plays in the second period and beginning of the third, but failed to convert. Philadelphia entered the game with the second ranked power play in the league at 23.9 percent, trailing only Montreal.

Goaltender Carey Price, who stopped 34 shots in shutting out the Flyers on Saturday, made 34 saves again to record the win. Niittymaki, also making his second start in a row, stopped 28 of 32 Montreal shots.

Maxim Lapierre’s empty net goal made it 5-2, before Riley Cote scored his first career NHL goal with 19 seconds left to cap the scoring.

The loss was the Flyers’ seventh in a row, and they lost all four games of the season series to Montreal, including a 1-0 defeat at the Bell Centre on Saturday night.

“I’m concerned that we have to find ways to win hockey games,” said John Stevens after the game. “We seem to find ways to hurt our chances of winning games by some of the things that we are doing. Whether it is penalties, if you go back a couple of games it’s giveaways. I mean, we have to start coming together as a team and playing like a team.”

The Canadiens opened the scoring when Kovalev converted a nice backhanded pass from behind the net by Tomas Plekanac at 6:18. Mike Richards’ shorthanded goal tied it at 9:30.

Montreal grabbed the lead back in the closing moments of the first period on a mental lapse by defenseman Jim Vandermeer. Scottie Upshall drilled the Canadiens’ Andrei Kostitsyn behind the Montreal net, and Vandermeer floated in from the point as some pushing and shoving ensued.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens took advantage of Vandermeer’s blunder and raced ahead on a three-on-one. Francis Bouillon fired a wrist shot over Niittymaki with 1.2 seconds remaining.

“I thought the effort and intensity were there, but the thinking wasn’t,” said Stevens. “That second goal we gave up, we just stopped playing. To give up a goal like that at such a critical point in the game…”

Philadelphia tied it 34 seconds into the second period on Braydon Coburn’s goal off of the stick of Mike Komisarek, but Ryder’s goal came just 1:41 later to give Montreal the lead for good.

Adding to the bad news for the Flyers was an injury update that was released during the game. General Manager Paul Holmgren said via conference call that Derian Hatcher will miss another three weeks with a right knee problem, Joffrey Lupul will be out two-to-three weeks with a high right ankle sprain, and Steve Downie suffered a mild concussion during Saturday’s game in Montreal and is day-to-day.

Also, call-up Denis Tolpeko left the game in the first period with a concussion and did not return. He will be out at least a week.

The Flyers head back north to Canada to play the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night (7:30 p.m., Comcast SportsNet).

“We know that we are capable of winning hockey games. “We’ve proven it,” said Richards, who tallied his team-leading 23rd goal of the season. “We’ve done a great job really all year, coming back in games and sticking together, and right now we’ve just got to come together as a team and put together our best for Tuesday and hopefully get a win.”

FLYERS NOTES
The Flyers have lost six in a row to Montreal, dating back to November 25, 2006. … Philadelphia fell to fourth in the Atlantic Division following the New York Rangers’ 4-1 win over Buffalo earlier in the day. … Philadelphia dressed seven defensemen for the game, and played most of it with just 10 forwards after the Tolpeko injury.

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