Stanley Cup Playoffs : Canadiens Finish Off Flyers to Reach Finals

By Montreal standards, the 1980s have not been a good decade.

But after winning the Wales Conference finals with a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 6 Thursday night, the Canadiens have a chance to end the decade with their 24th Stanley Cup.

Montreal opens the finals Sunday night at Calgary, Canada, in a meeting between the NHL’s top two finishers in the regular season. The Flames ended up with 117 points, two more than Montreal.

The Canadiens’ only Stanley Cup championship in this decade came in 1986, when Montreal beat Calgary in five games in the finals.

Bobby Smith and Chris Chelios scored second-period goals, and the Canadiens smothered Philadelphia’s offense, limiting the Flyers to 17 shots, to win for the ninth time in 10 playoff games at the Spectrum.

It avenged a six-game loss to the Flyers in the 1987 Wales finals.

Montreal again stifled the Flyers’ power-play unit, holding Philadelphia scoreless in five opportunities. The Canadiens killed off all 22 Philadelphia power plays in the six games after the Flyers had scored 20 with a man advantage in the first two rounds.

“We had excellent discipline killing power plays,” Montreal Coach Pat Burns said. “We studied their power play. We knew we had to tie up Tim Kerr. That was the key.”

Kerr, who had 14 goals in the first two rounds--eight on the power play--was held scoreless by the Canadiens.

Montreal spotted the Flyers an early lead on Scott Mellanby’s goal at 12:49 of the first period. But Mike Keane tied the game less than three minutes later, and the Canadiens took command in the second period, scoring twice and allowing the Flyers only five shots.

Ryan Walter put the game away midway through the third period, finishing off a three-on-one play and giving the Canadiens a 4-1 lead. Brian Propp made it 4-2 when he converted a pass from Ron Sutter with about six minutes to play on the Flyers’ second shot of the period. It was Propp’s 14th goal of the playoffs.

Canadien goaltender Patrick Roy, who shut out the Flyers in Games 2 and 4, again withstood an early Philadelphia surge before his teammates took control of the game. He finished with 15 saves, faced only seven shots after the first period and allowed only eight goals in the six-game series.

Chelios attributed Montreal’s victory to “a combination of aggressiveness and containing Kerr, Mike Bullard and Propp.

“We take pride in our goals against,” Chelios said. “We got the bounces a lot. And as the series went on, they got frustrated. That has happened to us.”

The Flyers’ frustrations boiled over with 1:37 remaining when goaltender Ron Hextall charged out of his crease into the corner and punched Chelios, who had knocked Propp out of Game 1 with an elbow to the head. Referee Don Koharski assessed a match penalty against Hextall and misconducts against Roy, Smith and Philadelphia’s Kjell Samuelsson.