The second match of the season saw the Flyers hit the road for the first leg of a back to back. The first half of this two part adventure featureed the strong Montreal Canadiens, still without their franchise goaltender
Carey Price. Their backup,
Devin Dubnyk, played well in their season opener and looked to take on the Flyers with a good offensive team in front of him. The Flyers however had just suffered a disappointing loss to the team Montreal defeated on opening night. Now it was up to the Orange and the Black to prove that any given night they could beat any team.
The first period started with the second line of the Flyers putting up four shots in their first shift. After almost a minute in the offensive zone a Hartnell was able to cleanup a garbage goal to put his team up early. The goal woke up the Habs as they joined the game to the tune of a Brenden Gallagher goal right on Mason's doorstep. The teams entered the second period 1-1. This period opened much more defensively as it took both teams 6 minutes to find a shot. After PK Subban was sent to the box for the first penalty of the game the Habs turned their defense onto overdrive denying a Flyers shot for 10 straight minutes. But Kimmo Timonen was able to break that streak and put the puck on Dubnyk, when he let out a big rebound Hartnell hammered it home for his second of the night. Despite being outshot 5 to 11 in the second the Flyers had the lead for the majority of the second half of the period, but with 50 seconds to go Vanek was able to tie it back up.
Heading into the third both teams were pretty sore from the lack of stoppages. While some legs were tired the motor of the second line couldn't quit. Three minutes into the 3rd Timonen stole the puck off Lars Eller's stick and lets a crisp pass sail towards Hartnell, as everyone came to cover the man who had 2 goals on the night Hartnell was clear to pass the puck to Couturier who scored on the break away. With the lead the Flyers began to slack off a bit in their own end and gave Montreal two powerplays in the middle of the period. Goals by Galchenyuk and Subban gave the Habs their first lead of the game. Trying to spark his team, rookie Tye McGinn was able to find a dance partner in George Parros. While the fight didn't lead to any positive change in the offense a Georges slashing call did. Again the Flyers were hard pressed to get shot on net with their PP, but when Claude Giroux took a slapshot from just below the point he made it count tying the game up with 0:38 left on the clock. While some would be content hanging on to overtime the top line, featuring Hartnell in for McGinn, was not ready for that. A wide angle shot was able to find the back of the net to give Jakub Voracek his first of the year, and Scott Hartnell his 3rd assist.
After the game the Flyers were all smiles as they spoke to the media. Hartnell (2G,3A) and Timonen (0G,4A) were the top two stars of the game. "I've been playing with Kimmo my whole NHL career," Hartnell addressing the media. "I've been lucky. Not many guys can put up 4 assists at his age." Timonen added, "We were first roommates together when he was 18. I mentioned that to him as we were settling into our room today, and I think he wanted to give me a reason to sign an extension for a couple more years." Not quite a week into the season and Timonen sits atop the assists board, as Hartnell owns points. Pretty incredible for two guys with a 13 year history as teammates and friends.
