Flyers recover to defeat Canadiens in shootout

MONTREAL -- Bobby Brink scored twice, and the Philadelphia Flyers recovered after blowing a three-goal first-period lead for a 5-4 shootout win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Cam York had a goal and an assist, and Trevor Zegras and Travis Konecny each had two assists for Philadelphia (7-5-1), which had lost two straight. Nikita Grebenkin tied it in the third period with his first NHL goal, Dan Vladar made 16 saves, and Zegras scored the only goal in the shootout.

“It was kind of an up-and-down game, hectic,” York said. “This building is pretty crazy at times for Montreal. I’m just proud of the guys for how we battled. That was a gutsy win, not easy when they score four straight there.”

Kirby Dach scored twice, and Ivan Demidov had a goal and an assist for Montreal (9-3-1), which had won three in a row.

“I don’t think we hated our first period, I think we were upset amongst ourselves [for] kind of spotting them three,” Dach said. “But we know what we have in this locker room and we know the kind of resiliency we’ve built over the years and the belief we have to go out and compete with every team each and every night. It’s just about getting back to the details.

“And I don’t think a lot needed to be said, we just kind of knew that we needed to get back to work and it started one shift at a time.”

Lane Hutson had two assists, and Sam Montembeault made 38 saves despite allowing three goals on the Flyers’ first six shots.

“Resilient by [Montembeault] to honestly steal us a point there,” Hutson said. “He faced a lot of shots and when you go down 3-0 early it’s tough to stay in the game, but he did and battled for us, and we wish we got the result for him.”

Montreal center Nick Suzuki extended the longest point streak in the NHL this season to 12 games (19 points; three goals, 16 assists) with the first of two Canadiens power-play goals in the second period, when they scored four goals.

Brink made it 1-0 at 1:56 when he scored on Philadelphia’s first shot, using his backhand to deflect Travis Sanheim’s point shot past Montembeault stick side.

York put the Flyers up 2-0 on a 5-on-3 power play at 7:07 when he one-timed Zegras’ backhand pass from the top of the right face-off circle.

Brink pushed it to 3-0 at 7:50, putting away a rebound for Philadelphia’s second straight power-play goal.

“The first goal was kind of what we’ve been trying to get better at, guys in front of the net with shots,” Zegras said. “And we just got some good momentum going on the bench and then obviously we had the two quick power-play goals, which kind of gave us life. And then we knew that they were going to come back with a big push in the second and I thought we did a great job keeping our composure and tying it up, and obviously taking it to the shootout.”

Dach cut it to 3-1 at 3:12 of the second to start Montreal’s comeback. He slapped in a rebound off the end boards from low in the right circle.

Suzuki drew Montreal within 3-2 at 4:15, snapping a one-timer into an open left side from the bottom of the left circle after Demidov’s cross-ice pass.

Suzuki has the Canadiens’ longest point streak since Pierre Turgeon had points in 13 consecutive games from April 5-29, 1995.

Dach tied it 3-3 at 13:28. Hutson made a move around Jacob Gaucher on the left wing, brought the puck down below the goal line and fed Dach in tight space for the finish at the left side of the net.

Demidov then made it a 4-3 lead at 15:57 with Montreal’s second power-play goal, scoring with a wrist shot high to the glove side from the right dot.

“I wasn’t upset at all,” Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said. “Sometimes you’re going to have bad breaks or something’s going to happen, and it’s a good team. They’ve got some sharpshooters there. Some of those goals are top-shelf goals.”

Grebenkin, playing his 16th career game, tied it 4-4 at 10:51 when he cut to the middle and scored on a low wrist shot from the top of the slot.

NOTES: It was the first time the Flyers scored three goals in the first 8:00 of a game since Nov. 2, 2011, when they scored three goals in the first 6:23 of a 3-2 win at the Buffalo Sabres. … Sanheim (assist) reached 163 career assists to pass Joe Watson (162) and tie Tom Bladon for fourth place in Flyers history among defensemen. … Zegras has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in 13 games this season, his first with the Flyers. He is the fastest Philadelphia player to reach 15 points since James van Riemsdyk did it in 2009-10 in his first 13 games with the team. … Hutson has 74 assists in 97 games, the third-most by an NHL defenseman before reaching the 100-game milestone, behind Mark Howe (78) and Sergei Zubov (75).