TORONTO, ON — Carter Hart made 27 saves, Joel Farabee scored 16 seconds after Montreal tied it, and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Canadiens 2-1 on Wednesday night in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series.
Ivan Provorov also scored for the Flyers. Shea Weber scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price stopped 29 shots.
Montreal, the final club in the NHL’s 24-team restart, stunned the Pittsburgh Penguins — who had the NHL’s seventh-best record when the schedule was halted because of the COVID-19 pandemic — 3-1 in the best-of-five qualifying round to book a place in the 16-slot playoff bracket.
Philadelphia sat fourth of four teams vying for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, then beat Boston, Washington and Tampa Bay in the round-robin tournament to grab top spot.
The teams will face off in Game Two on August 14 at 3:00 p.m.
