Stanley Cup Playoffs : Flyers Win in Overtime

Ilkka Sinisalo’s second goal of the game 9:11 into overtime gave the Philadelphia Flyers a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens Monday night in the opening game of their NHL semifinal playoff series.

The best-of-seven Wales Conference final resumes with Game 2 here Wednesday night.

Sinisalo scored his winning goal when he jammed the puck through a mass of bodies in front of the net.

Peter Zezel had brought the puck around from behind the net and took two shots that were stopped by goaltender Brian Hayward. Sinisalo drove the puck under the sprawled bodies of defenseman Chris Chelios and Hayward, and the puck just managed to trickle over the goal line.

The Canadiens apparently felt the play should have been whistled dead and protested vehemently to referee Terry Gregson but to no avail.

Bobby Smith scored at 7:15 of the third period to give the defending Stanley Cup champion Canadiens a 3-2 lead. But Derrick Smith tied it with 3:51 left in regulation.

Smith’s goal came just 1:26 after the Flyers had tied the score, 2-2, on a goal by Sinisalo that brought the crowd of 17,222 at The Spectrum to its feet.

Defenseman Mark Howe had cleared the puck from his zone to Sinisalo. Sinisalo came down the right side and passed to Brian Propp, who faked Hayward out of the net and fed across the slot to Sinisalo, who put the puck into an open net.

Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall made two spectacular saves on rapid-fire shots by Guy Carbonneau in front of the net in the last minute of the third period.

Propp had scored a first-period goal for Philadelphia, and Shane Corson had countered for Montreal in this first playoff meeting between the teams since 1976.

Ryan Walter, Montreal’s Game 7 hero in the Adams Division final against Quebec, had given the Canadiens a 2-1 lead with a goal late in the second period.