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MONTREAL - The Canadiens knew how deathly important it was to get the first goal in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final.
Getting the first four?
Even better.
The Habs roared back into the series with a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre and suddenly it’s a series again with the Canadiens having a chance Saturday afternoon in Game 4 to send it back to Philly tied.
The Canadiens played with an energy and an edge that hadn’t been seen in the first two games in Philadelphia where they were blown out by a combined score of 9-0, Game 3 a chippy affair with a couple of fights breaking out with a couple of minutes to go.
They burst the bubble of Philadelphia goaltender Michael Leighton, who had appeared invincible in the opening two games of the series, firing 37 shots on net (curiously, it was the first time in six games in which the Habs won this post-season after outshooting an opponent).
The Canadiens got a lot of mileage from the their third line with the trio of Dominic Moore (goal and assist), Maxim Lapierre (two assists) and Tom Pyatt (goal and assist) bringing points and several shifts in which they ran the Flyers ragged.
One of the areas the Canadiens talked about in a long meeting Wednesday was getting a forecheck and cycle game going, something they hadn’t been able to do in Philadelphia. They know the Flyers have depended on four defencemen for much of the playoffs and wanted to get bodies on them, making them muck, wear them down, especially with Game 4 less than 48 hours after Game 3.
There are rumours Flyers defenceman Chris Pronger is battling an ailing back which makes being physical against him even more important. He had a rough night with a penalty and a glaring giveaway on the Canadiens’ second goal late in the second period. He did pick up an assist on the Flyers goal which ruined Jaroslav Halak’s bid for a shutout, scored by Simon Gagne at 8:22 of the third to make it 4-1.
The Habs talked for the last day and a half about getting more of a presence in front of the net and winger Mike Cammalleri got them that all important first goal - not just of the game, but of the series - when went hard to the blue paint and delivered a crosscheck to the back of Flyers defenceman Matt Carle.
That pushed Carle out of the way and gave Cammalleri the room to bat a carom off the backboards past Leighton at 7:05 of the first period. That ended Leighton’s shutout string in the playoffs at 172 minutes and 55 seconds.
The Canadiens third line, which had been mostly invisible in the first two games in Philadelphia, had a dominating night and supplied the second goal with just over three minutes to go in the opening period.
It came off that brutal turnover by Pronger, who whiffed on a pass and gave the puck away in the slot. A shot my Lapierre went off the post and bounced off Pyatt at the other post and into the open side.
The Canadiens wasted a chance with a 5-on-3 for 52 seconds that bridged the end of the first and the beginning of the second, Cammalleri ripping a shot off the crossbar as the final seconds of the first period drained away.
Leighton has been wonderful for the Flyers since taking over for an injured Brian Boucher in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinal, but he looked weak on the fourth goal of the playoffs for Montreal’s Dominic Moore halfway through the second period, Moore’s shot from the slot slipping between Leighton’s pads and over the goal line to make it 3-0.
Montreal’s Brian Gionta jumped on a mishandled puck by Flyers defenceman Matt Carle and deftly stickhandled by Leighton to tuck it in under his pad.
That brought the chants of “we want chicken wings,” with which fans are rewarded when the Habs score five goals in a game.
Marc-Andre Bergeron got the fifth on a 5-on-3 advantage in the final seconds.