MONTREAL - Juraj Slafkovsky remembers scoring a hat trick where the only person who threw their hat on the ice was his dad.
His experience Tuesday night was quite the opposite.
鈥淚've never scored a hat trick like this,鈥 he said.
Slafkovsky scored three times as the Montreal Canadiens dealt the stumbling Philadelphia Flyers their eighth straight defeat amid a playoff chase with a 9-3 blowout win.
The 20-year-old Slafkovsky put Montreal up 4-0 with his third goal on a breakaway midway through the second period and received a deafening standing ovation from the Bell Centre crowd after fans covered the ice with ball caps.
鈥淚t was pretty loud,鈥 Slafkovsky said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a pretty nice feeling to hear that.鈥
The six-foot-three, 220-pound Slafkovsky became the second-youngest Hab to score a hat trick in the club鈥檚 storied history, and did it while sick and sleep-deprived.
The Slovakian winger鈥檚 throat was so sore he almost lost his voice, but he鈥檒l deal with having to fill his mouth with cough drops if it means he can fill the net with pucks.
鈥淚t can stay like this if it鈥檚 like (this) every game,鈥 he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a good day, bad sleep but good day.鈥
Christian Dvorak 鈥 in his return from a 42-game absence 鈥 and Brendan Gallagher scored twice while Josh Anderson and Joel Armia also found the back of the net for Montreal (30-36-12). Sam Montembeault made 32 saves and Jordan Harris had three assists as the Canadiens snapped a three-game skid.
Ryan Poehling had two goals and Joel Farabee also scored for labouring Philadelphia (36-32-11). Samuel Ersson stopped 12 of 17 shots before getting the hook in the second period. Backup Ivan Fedotov turned away 10 of 14.
The Flyers, who fell out of a playoff spot for the first time in months Saturday, dropped two points behind the Washington Capitals for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and four points back of the New York Islanders for third in the Metropolitan Division with one more game played.
鈥淲e made a lot of mistakes. Turnovers, coverages, any part of the game there were mistakes," head coach John Tortorella said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to eat it and we鈥檝e got to stay together and try to solve things.
鈥淲hether it鈥檚 enough time to do what we want to do to try to get in, I鈥檓 not concerned about that. I鈥檓 concerned about just being pros trying to get some of our dignity back.鈥
Every Flyers player sat in uniform waiting to answer questions as media entered the visitors鈥 dressing room after the game, an unusual site in the NHL.
鈥淭hey need to answer the questions,鈥 Tortorella said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 question their effort because it鈥檚 been a strong group all year long,鈥 he added. 鈥淚鈥檓 frustrated for them because this was rock bottom tonight for us and I hate to see us at this time of year be playing this way after all the good minutes we鈥檝e put in throughout the year.鈥
The Canadiens opened the scoring 1:05 into the game when Mike Matheson鈥檚 one-timer deflected off Slafkovsky鈥檚 skate.
After Montembeault denied several Flyers chances, Slafkovsky added his second at 8:43 of the second period to spark a Canadiens onslaught.
鈥淭hey score their first goal right away and you say, 鈥楳an,鈥欌 Tortorella said. 鈥淏ut I thought we gathered ourselves there and actually didn鈥檛 play a bad first period.
鈥淏ut then when they score their second goal, we鈥檙e running around a little bit. Things just went the wrong way.鈥
Gallagher made it 3-0 at 10:46 before Slafkovsky buried his hat-trick goal 26 seconds later.
Drafted first overall in 2022, Slafkovsky is up to 19 goals and 48 points after an underwhelming rookie year and a slow start this season.
His offensive turnaround coincides with a jump up to Montreal鈥檚 top line alongside Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield in December 鈥 something head coach Martin St. Louis said Slafkovsky earned with his defensive play.
鈥淗e鈥檚 done everything I鈥檝e asked him to do,鈥 St. Louis said he thought at the time. 鈥淗e deserves an opportunity to play with our best player 鈥 and he took off.
鈥淏ut it was earned.鈥
Anderson got in on the action at 12:42, snapping a 16-game goalless drought. With Fedotov in net, Dvorak made it 6-0 at 15:27.
Poehling got Philadelphia on the board in the third but Dvorak and Gallagher scored again to push the lead to seven as 鈥淥l茅, Ol茅, Ol茅鈥 reverberated around the arena.
Farabee and Poehling cut into the lead before the final buzzer, but the deficit was far too large to erase.
Armia added a ninth goal for Montreal with under two minutes left for good measure.
UP NEXT
Canadiens: Open a three-game road trip Thursday against the New York Islanders.
Flyers: Wrap up a four-game trip Thursday against the New York Rangers.
This report by 好色tvwas first published April 9, 2024.
