Patrick scores two in third, Flyers top Canadiens for third straight win

MONTREAL -- Nolan Patrick scored two goals in the third period, and the Philadelphia Flyers won their third straight game, 5-2 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Carter Hart made 33 saves in his fifth consecutive start for Philadelphia (19-23-6), which is 4-1-0 in five games since an eight-game losing streak (0-7-1).
"It means a lot for us," said Hart, who got his first NHL road win in four starts. "When we were losing, that's not a fun thing to go through but guys kept their spirits up and they were very positive. And when we were losing it wasn't by much; it was just like one or two couple of bounces. And now those bounces are starting to go our way and we're starting to force their hand and make sure they're going our way by playing 60-minute hockey."
WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Canadiens highlights]
Travis Konecny scored his 12th goal for his 100th NHL point at 17:01 of the second period. He got his 101st point 1:33 later with an assist on James van Riemsdyk's 12th goal.
The Flyers don't play again until Jan. 28.
"Obviously that's a huge win for us before the break," Patrick said.

Antti Niemi made 19 saves for Montreal (27-18-5), which lost the second of back-to-back games to end a season-long four-game winning streak.
The Canadiens, who outshot the Flyers 12-1 in the first period, failed to score on their only power play of the game in the second. Montreal is 20-for-159 with the man-advantage (12.6 percent), which ranks worst in the NHL.
"We're not a threat on the power play, especially tonight," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "We got a little bit better in the last few games where we had some, but tonight was one power play and it was a dead one."
Konecny gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead when he scored from the slot on a rebound of Shayne Gostisbehere's shot.
Van Riemsdyk made it 2-0 at 18:34 of the second when he tipped in Robert Bagg's shot from the point for his sixth goal in five games.

Patrick scored his eighth goal at 7:06 of the third period to make it 3-0.
Max Domi made it 3-1 when he scored at 7:36 of the third. but Patrick responded with his second of the game at 9:32 to make it 4-1.
Brett Kulak made it 4-2 with his third goal at 16:00.
"I don't know what it was," Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber said. "We definitely had a great start. Maybe they got going a little bit after that. It's hard to say what exactly it was, but they got themselves going somehow and it was too late by the time we got going."
Michael Raffl scored into an empty net with 52 seconds remaining for the 5-2 final.

They said it

"The first period, Carter obviously gave us a chance to be even and that was a huge part of the game. I don't have to say it, but obviously they were the better team in the first period. It wasn't close, and I thought we got better as the game went on. Maybe a little bit might have been fatigue on their part, having traveled, but I have to give our guys credit too because we didn't have a whole lot going on in the first period and then [we] found a way to pick it up after." -- Flyers coach Scott Gordon
"I thought we were skating really well. We pride ourselves on our speed and quick, quick play, so I actually thought the energy was up in the room before the game, coming into the game, so I didn't think the back-to-back affected us too much." -- Canadiens defenseman Brett Kulak

Need to know

It was Patrick's second two-goal game of the season, which have come in the past three games; he scored twice in a 7-4 win against the Minnesota Wild last Monday. … The one shot Montreal allowed in the first was the fewest in one period against the Canadiens since Nov. 11, 2015, when they allowed one in the second period of a 4-3 shootout loss at the Pittsburgh Penguins.

What's next

Flyers: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Jan. 28 (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NBCSP, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: Host the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SN1, RDS, FS-A, NHL.TV)