Canadiens hang on to defeat Flyers

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens were determined to put their most lopsided loss in nearly 21 years behind them as quickly as possible.
Tomas Plekanec scored shorthanded for his first goal of the season at 10:57 of the third period, and Montreal held on for a 5-4 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Carey Price made 34 saves for his sixth win in as many starts after backup Al Montoya played all 60 minutes of a 10-0 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, Montreal's biggest shutout loss since 1942.
WATCH: All Flyers vs. Canadiens Highlights
The Canadiens had not lost by 10 goals since an 11-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings at the Forum on Dec. 2, 1995, in what proved to be Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy's last game with Montreal.
"I think it was 100 percent necessary, and everyone knew that we had to bounce back from a performance like that," said defenseman Greg Pateryn, who scored at 9:09 of the first period to tie the game at 2-2.

Andrei Markov had a goal and an assist for Montreal (10-1-1), which leads the NHL with 21 points. Alex Galchenyuk and Phillip Danault also scored for the Canadiens.
Shayne Gostisbehere had a goal and an assist, and Chris VandeVelde, Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny scored for Philadelphia (6-6-1), which lost for the first time in four games.
Flyers goaltender Michal Neuvirth made 12 saves in his fourth straight start. Philadelphia outshot Montreal 38-17, including 15-3 in the second period and 14-6 in the third.
"We were playing some good hockey," Giroux said. "We were feeling good about our game, and even if we were losing, I think we were happy about our game, the way we were playing. We wanted to keep playing like that, and we thought if we keep playing like that, we were going to win the game. But if we play like we played tonight, we're going to win a lot of hockey games."
Galchenyuk put the Canadiens ahead 3-2 when he scored on Montreal's second shot of the second period at 18:38. Danault increased the lead to 4-2 at 3:52 of the third.
Giroux scored on a power play at 9:16 to draw Philadelphia within 4-3. His third goal of the season came 45 seconds after Montreal right wing Andrew Shaw was given a double minor for high sticking at 8:31.
Plekanec made it 5-3 when he put a slap shot past Neuvirth.
Konecny scored the Flyers' second power-play goal of the period to make it 5-4 with 3:44 remaining.

Goal of the game

Plekanec's shorthanded goal restored the two-goal lead Montreal had built on Danault's goal but saw cut to one when Giroux scored on the power play. It proved to be important when Konecny scored Philadelphia's second man-advantage goal of the period 5:19 later.

Save of the game

Price made a windmill glove grab on Flyers forward Jakub Voracek's wrist shot toward the upper right corner at 8:35 of the second period. "That save he made on Voracek there, that's just … that's pretty good," Giroux said.

Highlight of the game

Galchenyuk's goal finished off a passing play with Markov and Alexander Radulov that showcased the latter's patience with the puck in the offensive zone.

They said it

"I think that's the positive you could take away from it. It's that never-die attitude, and I think some good things are ahead for us." -- Flyers defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere on their third-period performance, which included two power-play goals and a 14-6 advantage in shots on goal
"It was a big goal, definitely. I think lately we've given up too many penalties. We're in the box a lot, which puts a lot of pressure on the goalie and the guys who are killing the penalty. And at the same time, we've got to do a little bit better job on penalty killing. We've been good so far this year but the last couple of games we're kind of sliding and we have to get back on track with that." -- Canadiens center Tomas Plekanec said on his first goal since April 9

Need to know

Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto had an assist on Gostisbehere's first-period goal in his first game since Feb. 13. Del Zotto, who played 17:36, sustained a knee injury during the preseason after recovering from season-ending wrist surgery, which he had in February. ... It was Montreal coach Michel Therrien's 250th NHL win. ... Canadiens left wing Artturi Lehkonen left the game in the second period because of an upper-body injury. Therrien had no update about his condition.

What's next

Flyers: Home against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; CSN-PH, FS-D, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:Home against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SNE, RDS, NESN, NHL.TV)