About Last Night: Slafkovsky gets hat-trick in 9-3 rout over Flyers

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We’ll never know if it was the eclipse that gave them superpowers, but nearly every Montreal Canadiens player got in on the offence in a 9-3 blowout win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Juraj Slafkovsky led the way with his first career hat trick. Brendan Gallagher and Christian Dvorak, in his first game back since Dec. 30 after being out with a torn pectoral muscle, each scored twice. Jordan Harris added three assists.

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Slafkovsky is the second youngest Hab to ever notch a hat-trick, just after Stéphane Richer.

Enough jibber-jabber, let’s get to the goals. Mike Matheson was originally awarded the lone goal of the first period, but it ended up going to Slafkovsky on the deflection.

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Montreal reversed their bad second-period mojo with five unanswered goals in the middle frame. Slafkovsky got things started in the second, thanks to a cross-ice pass from Nick Suzuki. Matheson collected his second assist of the night.

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Then Montreal scored twice in 36 seconds. First up, Brendan Gallagher scored on a deflection just past Samuel Ersson’s glove.

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Then Slafkovsky completed his hat trick in style with a breakaway goal. Montreal lead 4-0 as the headwear rained down from the rafters.

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Every bounce seemed to go the Canadiens’ way. Even Josh Anderson had his 16-game goal drought snapped without even really taking a shot. He drove the net and good things happened to make it 5-0. Ersson’s night was over. In came Ivan Fedotov.

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Dvorak celebrated his return to the lineup by scoring his first goal since Dec. 18 to close out the second period. Habs lead 6-0 after 40 minutes.

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Former Hab Ryan Poehling got Philly on the board to start the third, but Montreal regained the six-goal advantage thanks for Dvorak. With an assist, Rafael Harvey-Pinard got his first point for the Habs in 11 games.

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Just over a minute later, Gallagher turned on the afterburners, and possibly turned back the hands of time, to score one of the prettiest breakaway goals of his career to give the Habs their first eight-goal game of the season.

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Philly added two more goals as the defence-free game drew to a close, but with less than two minutes remaining, Gallagher set up Joel Armia with his career-high 17th goal.

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The Montreal Canadiens put on a show for their fans in the team’s penultimate home game of the season. It was also probably the only game this season where Suzuki and Cole Caufield landed at the bottom of Hockey Stat Cards’ impact card for the night.

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The liveblog commenters got to enjoy watching the Habs play spoiler to Philly’s dimming playoff hopes, while also appreciating guilt-free Poehling’s emergence as a solid player for the Flyers. And because many were asking, here’s what Flyers coach John Tortorella had to say after the game. No smoke coming out of his ears.

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Here’s what the commenters had to say about last night’s victory.

3. “Eclipse yesterday. A nine-goal night tonight. Not sure if we will see these again in our lifetimes.” — Bob Taylor

2. “Less stressful day at the office for Monty tonight. Deserves some run support for once.” — Mick Chow

1. “Since Feb. 1, Slaf has 28 pts (12G, 16A) in 29 GP. That projects to 79 pts (34G, 45A) over a full 82-game season. Go back farther, and over his last 49 GP (when he started on this heater) he has 17G and 24A which projects to 28G, 40A, 69pts (adds to 69 because of rounding).” — Michael Way

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