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PHILADELPHIA - Scott Gomez wore the goat horns.
Again.
The Montreal Canadiens forward took a penalty with the Habs on the power play in the opening minutes of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final, just as he did in Game 1 Sunday.
Just as they did in Game 1, the Philadelphia Flyers scored with Gomez in the penalty box, getting the crucial opening goal on their way to a 3-0 win at the Wachovia Center.
“You saw it, didn’t you?” he said when asked about the hooking penalty he received on Philly forward Claude Giroux three minutes into the game. “I had my stick get caught (in Giroux’s sweater). I had my hands up to show it was caught. It’s going to happen. I can’t really comment on it. It’s the call and I’m not going to complain. There’s not much you can do.”
When Philly’s Daniel Briere opened the scoring with Gomez in the box four minutes and 16 seconds into the game, the Flyers wound up having all they would need to take a 2-0 lead in the series.
The Canadiens did a better job in a lot of different areas Tuesday night, but the bottom line is they still came up way short and have yet to score a goal on Flyers goaltender Michael Leighton.
“We did certain things much better tonight. I thought I can’t blame the effort,” said Canadiens coach Jacques Martin. “We just need to bring some solution to our special teams and 5-on-5, do a couple of things different. We made some progress.”
The Flyers are doing to the Habs what the Canadiens did to the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
They’re outplaying the Flyers, but can’t take advantage of their margin in shots. Tuesday night the Canadiens outshot the Flyers 30-23.
“Yeah, it’s a little bit of our own medicine, I guess,” said Canadiens defenceman Hal Gill. “We just have to do some different things, but overall it was a much better effort on our part. We’ve just got to be a little sharper.”