Montreal

A dream had carried the boys so far from home, some 5,000 miles across the ocean to a cramped and dingy apartment in Philadelphia: a hope that ice hockey could change their lives. Ivan Pravilov could fulfill that dream, they were told. He could take them from the daily grind of post-communist Ukraine to the gleaming ice of the NHL. He'd done it before. He'd done if for Andrei Zyuzin, who went on to play for six NHL teams. He'd done it for Konstantin Kalmikov, a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1996.

MICHAL NEUVIRTH made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and Alex Ovechkin scored his 19th goal on a power play midway through the second period to lift the visiting Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Canadiens last night. Mathieu Perreault and Marcus Johansson scored first-period goals for Washington, which bounced back from a 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday to win for the third time in four games. Price stopped 13 shots for Montreal, 4-10-1 in its past 15 games - the last 14 under interim coach Randy Cunneyworth.

Game 1: Tonight at 7 The Goalies It took the Flyers' Marty Biron until he was 30 years old for the chance to compete in the playoffs, and he's likely full of confidence now after stopping 39 of 41 shots in Game 7 against Washington. Coach John Stevens called it Biron's best game as a Flyer. He lost to the Canadiens, 5-2, in his only start against them, on Nov. 1, but he's 12-7 with a 2.17 goals-against average against them during his career. The Canadiens felt so strongly about 20-year-old rookie Carey Price that they dealt Cristobal Huet to the Capitals three weeks after they recalled Price from the AHL. Price became the fourth rookie goalie to get a Game 7 shutout in the 5-0 win over Boston.

He had yielded four goals while facing only 18 shots in Game 3 of the Prince of Wales Conference final, which prompted his removal from the starting lineup for Game 4. And when he got into that contest, less than a minute into the third period, he allowed two more goals in seven shots, the sort of relief effort you would expect more from the Phillies' bullpen than from the goaltender of the defending Stanley Cup champions. The Montreal Canadiens lost both of those games - home games, to boot - to the Flyers, and more than a few observers suggested that goalie Brian Hayward had been as accommodating as a Welcome Wagon hostess.

The word "perspective" is not a part of the French-Canadian dialect. An Anglophone would define the term as the empty space between the 23 Stanley Cup banners hanging from the rafters of the Forum. Thus, on Tuesday, there wasn't a rue here where they didn't rue the day Patrick Roy was born. The sky fell. The Canadiens lost the first game of a playoff series. The Flyers reached up with their sticks and brought the wild bleu yonder crashing down on a city of 2.8 million Petit Poulets, all of whom saw this disaster pending as long as 11 days ago. That was when Nos Glorieux lost - gasp - an entire game of the Boston series.

The Flyers have forced Game 7. I know Fitz is super excited about that and probably couldn't sleep at all last night. Who will win the final game of the series up in Boston? The Flyers certainly have momentum on their side. Talk of a Game 7 in Boston, however, gives me agita. It dredges up all those painful memories of Wilt's Warriors and 76ers having their hopes crushed in Beantown. I can see it now. Claude Julien smugly igniting a fat cigar as the Bruins' announcer screams, "Bergeron steals the puck!

Flyers reserve defenseman Ed Hospodar was suspended from the Stanley Cup playoffs yesterday by the National Hockey League as a result of the brawl he instigated before Thursday night's game against Montreal. Along with the suspension, the NHL levied $24,500 in fines. Every player who left the locker room to join the fray was fined $500. Hospodar, Dave Brown, Rick Tocchet, Don Nachbaur and Daryl Stanley of the Flyers were fined an additional $500 for fighting, as were Shayne Corson, Chris Nilan, Larry Robinson and Mike McPhee of the Canadiens.

The Rangers went out the way they were supposed to go out. Facing elimination and down by one goal, they managed only two third- period shots. Their one sniper, Pierre Larouche, had been shut down. Their excellent goalie, John Vanbiesbrouck, had been left with no margin for error. Their defense, crippled by injuries, was short of major league bodies. The fact that this happened two rounds later than expected was not of much consolation to the Rangers, nor should it delude the people who put this team together into thinking that their real selves had stood up in the victories against the Flyers and Capitals.

Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau's comment that Kimmo Timonen "deserved" the sucker punch he took from Tom Kostopoulos in Game 2 had the Flyers riled up for Game 3 of their playoff series last night at the Wachovia Center. "Seems like when we do things like that, we get criticized," Flyers coach John Stevens said during the morning skate. "When other teams do it, they get complimented. It's nice to know we're so forgiving of those actions the next time Steve Downie is involved in an incident such as that.

When I was 16, home was a hotel in the Bahamas, where a tame pelican swam laps in the pool, sailboats outnumbered automobiles, people hung garlands on the palm trees at Christmastime and the hotel stationery bore the slogan: "So near and yet so foreign. " That line floated up from the recesses of memory recently. It fits this city. Less than 500 miles from Philadelphia, Montreal is some of the sound and style and cuisine of France without a flight across the ocean. There is a tendency to bristle on the part of Montrealers grown weary of the bromidic statement that their city is "like Paris," but cliches can be - how do you say?

In recent years Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal has changed mightily; since I last saw it in Philadelphia eight years ago, the company has replaced all but one of its members, Youri de Wilde. He returned, along with many new faces and some really great legs in the cast to dance the world premiere of Wen Wei Wang's Night Box as well as Aszure Barton's Les Chambres des Jacques at the Annenberg Center's Dance Celebration series Thursday evening. And what crowd-pleasers they were. Wang's piece opens with a cluster of dancers, backs to us, isolating torsos, arms, and necks like figures in a video game.

MICHAL NEUVIRTH made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and Alex Ovechkin scored his 19th goal on a power play midway through the second period to lift the visiting Capitals to a 3-0 victory over the Canadiens last night. Mathieu Perreault and Marcus Johansson scored first-period goals for Washington, which bounced back from a 3-0 home loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday to win for the third time in four games. Price stopped 13 shots for Montreal, 4-10-1 in its past 15 games - the last 14 under interim coach Randy Cunneyworth.

Some audience members said they were in shock and awe after Compagnie Marie Chouinard's opening-night performance Thursday of Rite of Spring at the Annenberg Center, as the Montreal company began its first visit to Philadelphia in 17 years. But after seeing Chouinard's Rite in Phoenix in 1996 and longing to see it again all these years, I was just in shock. It was so unlike the original, my favorite of many Rites I've seen. Company agent Paul Tanguay said audiences at a planned appearance in Shanghai in October will see the original, with the white- and tan-colored leotards and Rober Racine's 12-minute prelude, Sound Signatures . But we get a bargain-basement version, without the Racine or the costumes.

Major League Soccer teams will still play 34 regular-season games in 2012, but due to the addition of a 19th team, the Montreal Impact, the league announced on Sunday that it is unbalancing its schedule. Montreal will join the Eastern Conference, which will have 10 teams. Besides Montreal and the Union, the other Eastern Conference teams will be Kansas City, Houston, Columbus, Chicago, D.C. United, Toronto, New England, and New York. Next year, the Union and other Eastern Conference teams will play one game against each of the nine Western Conference teams and a total of 25 against Eastern Conference teams.

Brad Boyes and Thomas Vanek scored in a shootout to help the Buffalo Sabres beat the Montreal Canadiens , 3-2 on Monday night. Jhonas Enroth made 25 saves in place of injured starter Ryan Miller to improve to 6-0 this season. Jason Pominville and Derek Roy scored in regulation for the Sabres, who overcame a 2-0 deficit in the third period for their fourth victory in five games. Vanek had an assist on Roy's goal. Max Pacioretty and Erik Cole scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price made 30 saves.

Armstrong World Industries, of Lancaster, said it acquired a Montreal-based maker of specialty metal ceilings for an undisclosed price. Armstrong said it purchased Simplex Ceilings as part of its strategy to widen its global leadership and manufacturing presence in targeted markets. Simplex is a 40-employee firm with annual sales of $10 million, according to Armstrong. Adding Simplex "expands our technical capabilities, broadens our extensive specialty ceilings portfolio and improves our service and lead times for customers in North America," Armstrong's Mike Shirk said.

MONTREAL - The Canadiens, owners of the steeped franchise's worst start to a season in 71 years, were desperate. How hungry? With the city up in arms, demanding change in the Canadiens' organization, Montreal general manager Pierre Gauthier fired assistant coach Perry Pearn just hours before last night's game. As if Pearn - a well-respected assistant - was the reason the Canadiens were 1-5-2 and without five key players, all sitting out with injuries. Searching for their first home win of the season - including five preseason home games - Montreal shoved forward and leading scorer Max Pacioretty back into the lineup, just 2 days after he tore tendons in his wrist against Florida.

BLAINVILLE, Quebec - Lu Chien-soon shot a 9-under 63 on Saturday to match the course record and take a 1-stroke lead over John Cook after the second round of the Champions Tour's Montreal Championship. Lu bogeyed the opening hole, then had 10 birdies in a 13-hole stretch to reach 16 under at Fontainebleau Golf Club.   European Tour SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France - Mark Foster of England shot a 3-under 68 to share a one-stroke lead with James Morrison after the third round at the French Open.

MONTREAL - "To me, Montreal is eating, drinking, and shopping," summed up a Canadian friend before my first trip to the island city, where French is the official language but food is (unofficially) the language of love. Priorities ordered for me, I set my top objective for my weekend stay: to get to Montreal's hotter-than-ever restaurant Garde Manger to sample the lobster poutine, a variation on the artery-clogging Quebec staple consisting of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. An episode of Iron Chef America , in which Garde Manger chef Chuck Hughes defeated Bobby Flay, had just aired in Canada; Hughes had rallied after the show's cohost, a Toronto native, admonished him for a defeatist attitude.

FRANK SERAVALLI Back in late December, just a few days after Christmas, the Flyers flew to Vancouver - perhaps the most breathtaking stop on the NHL circuit - a day earlier than normal to regroup after a 7-day holiday break and to get adjusted to the 3-hour time change. Despite sitting a point behind Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division, the Flyers were about to start their tear through the standings that would ultimately put them eight points up in the Eastern Conference and in the lead for 54 consecutive days.