Zegras pushes goal streak to 4, Flyers top Canadiens to end 3-game skid

MONTREAL -- Trevor Zegras scored for the fourth straight game, and the Philadelphia Flyers scored four straight goals to end a three-game skid with a 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Travis Konecny had a goal and an assist, and Carl Grundstrom and Bobby Brink also scored for Philadelphia (17-9-6), which is on a five-game point streak despite losing its previous three games (2-0-3). Dan Vladar made 21 saves, and Sean Couturier had two assists.

“We’re not a perfect team but there’s a lot of buy-in,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought our 'D' did a really good job of trying to keep them outside. I mean, they’re a good team. They had some chances in the third. There’s things that we’ve still got to learn, you know, when teams make a press but they’re getting less and less. I thought there were less turnovers tonight.”

Said Couturier: “I thought it was a good road game. Maybe the third [period] we can be a little better, not sit back as much and keep being confident in our game. You know they’re going to have pushes, but we’ve got to find a way to swing the momentum in our favor at times. But overall, we did a good job.”

Alexandre Texier scored for Montreal (17-12-4), which was 2-0-1 in its previous three games. Jacob Fowler made 17 saves in his third NHL start and his first at home.

“We could have managed more on offense, especially in the second period,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “I felt we lacked execution. We died with the puck in the offensive zone because we weren’t using our defensemen. They’re a team that plays very compact in front of their net, and if you don’t use your defensemen, you’re playing 3-on-5.”

Texier gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 19:00 of the first period. He drove down the left side of the slot, took a pass from Jake Evans and scored for the second straight game with a shot past Vladar's blocker from the hash marks.

Grundstrom tied it 1-1 at 19:39. He received a pass from Owen Tippett low in the left face-off circle and put a wrist shot stick side past Fowler.

“It was huge because they scored late also,” Couturier said. “So, it was huge that we responded right away going into the second tied instead of down one.”

Zegras put the Flyers up 2-1 at 6:26 of the second period in his 300th NHL game. He took a pass from Konecny on a 2-on-1 and scored with a wrist shot under Fowler’s right pad.

It was Zegras’ 33rd point (14 goals, 19 assists) in 32 games, surpassing his point total from last season, when he had 32 points (12 goals, 20 assists) in 57 games with the Anaheim Ducks.

Brink made it 3-1 at 19:10, shooting into a wide-open net in the slot after Matvei Michkov stole the puck from Fowler behind the net.

“Ultimately, I’ve got to make a play there, and it’s my responsibility not to turn it over and I didn’t do my job,” Fowler said.

Konecny shot into an empty net with 1:25 remaining in the third period for the 4-1 final.

“The first two periods I thought were good, some pretty timely goals,” Zegras said. “[Grundstrom’s] goal at the end of the first was huge for us, and then obviously that one at the end of the second was a nice little push.”

Rasmus Ristolainen played his first game since March 11. The Flyers defenseman had surgery to repair a ruptured right triceps tendon on March 26 and was expected to miss about six months. He was plus-2 in 19:18 of ice time.

“He’s an absolute moose out there,” Zegras said.

Canadiens defenseman Mike Matheson did not play. He is day to day with an upper-body injury.

“It’s obviously a big loss with the way he plays and how many minutes he plays,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “But I thought our defensemen did a pretty good job, and hopefully we can get him back relatively soon.”

NOTES: It was the first time the Flyers scored within the final minute of each of the first two periods of a game since Nov. 29, 2019, when Shayne Gostisbehere scored at 19:02 of the first and Couturier scored at 19:48 of the second in a 6-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings. … The Canadiens sent goalie Sam Montembeault to Laval of the American Hockey League for a conditioning assignment on Tuesday.