Flyers beat Canadiens in Game 5 to move within one win of Cup finals

Michael Leighton shut down and shut out the Montreal Canadiens again, leading the Philadelphia Flyers within one win of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Leighton stopped 17 shots for his third blanking of Montreal in four games, Claude Giroux scored twice - including an empty-netter - and Ville Leino added a breakaway goal in a 3-0 win yesterday in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals in Montreal.

Philadelphia leads the series 3-1 and can advance to the Finals for the first time since 1997 with a win at home in Game 5 Monday. The Flyers have won seven of eight since falling behind the Boston Bruins 3-0 in the second round.

The Flyers bounced back from a 5-1 loss on Thursday with an efficient and opportunistic performance. They stifled the Canadiens, as they did at home in the first two games of the series. Montreal was held to only one shot in the second period, a frame in which Philadelphia scored twice.

"We were pretty tight defensively," Flyers coach Peter Laviolette said. "We didn't allow a lot of opportunities. The neutral zone was really tight, which eliminates rush opportunities . . . We had some chances ourselves to score, so it was a good period."

Leighton had a relatively easy day after allowing five goals on 38 shots Thursday. He opened the series by stopping 58 shots in 6-0 and 3-0 wins at Philadelphia.

Leighton became the 13th NHL goalie to have three shutouts in one series, and the first since Toronto's Ed Belfour and Tampa Bay's Nikolai Khabibulin did it in the first round of the 2004 postseason.

Blackhawks in control. Their captain, Jonathan Toews, was 4-years-old the last time the Chicago Blackhawks reached the Finals. Today they can complete a sweep over the San Jose Sharks for the franchise's first appearance in the Finals since 1992.

Chicago pulled out a 3-2 overtime victory Friday night on Dustin Byfuglien's goal and Antti Niemi's 44 saves.

- AP