MONTREAL — The NHL’s goalie of the moment, and maybe the player most responsible for the Philadelphia Flyers ‘ unexpected run toward a Stanley Cup, arrived in Montreal with one simple wish for his 29th birthday.
“Just some rest,” Michael Leighton said Wednesday with a big laugh.
OK, but not much.
As busy as Leighton has been in registering consecutive shutouts by stopping all 58 shots Montreal has fired at him in the first two games of the Eastern Conference finals, the Canadiens are vowing to make it even tougher on him.
A day after a 3-0 loss at Philadelphia, Canadiens coach Jacques Martin spent much of a 45-minute meeting attempting to erase 120 minutes of futility by stressing to his players the importance of getting more traffic in front of Leighton as the best-of-seven series shifts to Montreal for tonight’s Game 3.
Defenseman Josh Gorges is buying in because at this point, scoring a goal — just one — has become the Canadiens’ primary objective, no matter how it comes.
“Even if it’s one of those ugly ones, off someone’s behind or deflecting in off of one of their guys, we’ll take it,” Gorges said. “First of all, I think that would give us a boost, a little confidence to know that he’s not invincible.”
The Canadiens have been resilient this postseason. Seeded eighth, they’ve already rallied from series deficits to knock off top-seeded Washington and defending champion Pittsburgh in seven games each.
The seventh-seeded Flyers pulled off maybe the greatest comeback in NHL history just to get here, coming from three games down against Boston and three goals down in Game 7 to beat the Bruins.
And they’re doing it with a journeyman goalie.
Claimed by the Flyers off of waivers in December, Leighton has grabbed the spotlight since taking over the starting job after Brian Boucher hurt his knee in Game 5 against Boston.
Leighton has now won four straight, and has been invincible this series.
Leighton became the first goalie to register two consecutive shutouts in the NHL playoffs since Detroit’s Chris Osgood did it against Pittsburgh in the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals. His shutout streak of 165:50 is second among Flyers goalies, behind only Boucher, who went 184:45 without allowing a goal in the 2000 playoffs.
With a shutout tonight, Leighton would become only the eighth player to do it in three straight games, and first since Anaheim’s Ilya Bryzgalov did it in 2006.
Martin was confident in his team.
“We’ve earned the right to be here. We know it’s not going to be easy,” Martin said, before noting how the Canadiens rallied from a 3-1 series deficit against Washington. “A lot of people here, after Game 4 against Washington, weren’t too optimistic. And this group proved them wrong.”
Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov underwent knee surgery and will be out for six months.
