Flyers Fall to Habs, Offense Struggles to Get Past Young Keeper

MONTREAL. QC - The Flyers fell to the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 up north as the play of the Habs young goalie Cayden Primeau halted any offensive effort.

The Canadiens got on the board early in the first period as Nick Suzuki buried his 30th of the year at 07:02 to make it 1-0 Montreal off the assists from Juraj Slafkovsky (26) and Mike Matheson (41).

Though before the first came to an end, Jesse Ylonen (4) made it 2-0 Canadiens at the 03:14 mark with assists from Jayden Struble (5) and Nick Suzuki (39).

It was through the thick of the contest and into the third period that Primeau began to shine as the 24-year-old kept virtually everything that bounced off a Flyer stick, out of the net. The Habs netminder finished the day with 29 saves on 30 shots allowed which was good enough for a .967 save% as the tendy allowed just one goal on the evening which kept him from his third consecutive shutout at the Bell Centre.

That one goal came just after the Canadiens scored the first of two empty netters, this one coming off the stick of Joel Armia (13) who dropped it in at the 02:55 mark with assists from Mike Matheson (41) and Kaiden Guhle (15). It wasn't until the 01:01 marker when the Flyers finally got on the board thanks to Owen Tippet (27) who was assisted by Garnet Hathaway (7) and Travis Konecny (33).

Finally, Jake Evans finished the day up with 00:04 left on the clock scoring his sixth of the season on an empty netter to make it 4-1. Mike Matheson (41) and Joel Armia (6) assisted.

With the loss the Flyers fall to 36-28-16 on the season and sit only a point above the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference's seventh seed. They'll next faceoff with the Chicago Blackhawks back at Wells Fargo Center for a 7:00 pm puck drop. You can see the game on NBCSP.