Momentum swings are pretty common and rather important in hockey games, and the Flyers had a critical one late in Saturdays contest against Montreal.
Its the kind of swing they might see in the weeks ahead when the playoffs begin.
Les Canadiens were making a push in the final eight minutes, trailing 3-1 when they had a 5 on 3 power play for 1:21.
The call went to Max Talbot, rookie Sean Couturier and defenseman Braydon Coburn as the primary threesome.
We worked on it the day before, Coburn said. Obviously, when you are 5 on 3, your best player has to be your goalie, and I felt when they had a few one-timers, Bryz Ilya Bryzgalov really didnt give them anything. He just sucked in the rebounds. That makes our job easier. If there are rebounds flying around, thats when the extra two attackers are dangerous.
The threesome worked nearly the entire 5 on 3 with the exception of a brief spell when Nicklas Grossmann replaced Coburn. Laviolette used his timeout on a shot out of play to reinsert Coburn for the final minute.
They did outstanding work, forcing Montreal to go up top to try and find space and shooting lanes for Habs defenseman P.K. Subbans one-timers. Bryzgalov had three saves during the entire two-man disadvantage, two of them on Subban.
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Laviolette used two forwards instead of two defensemen because of Subbans shot.
When teams play like Montreal, you know they want Subban up there for the one-timer, Talbot said. So you try to get two forwards on top to get into ashooting lane and other options. It worked out pretty good.
The momentum generated off that kill saw the Flyers come back at full strength and score one time to end it.
We did a god job not giving them too much space or too many scoring chances, Couturier said. It was a key moment in the game. It was 3-1. The 5 on 3 could have changed the game very quickly.
In Monday's lackluster 5-3 loss to Tampa Bay, there were no two-man disadvantages for the Flyers to kill. Their PK went 2 for 3 allowing a Steven Stamkos power-play goal late in the first period.
Over the last eight games, the Flyers have killed off 21 of 23 power play chances for an excellent 91.3 percent kill ratio.
They'll need to continue that in postseason.
E-mail Tim Panaccio at tpanotch@comcast.net