A deeper Flyers team picks up another win in tough building originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
For a second time this season, the Flyers went to Bell Centre and left with a win.
They beat the Canadiens, 4-1, Tuesday night in Montreal.
Carl Grundstrom, Trevor Zegras, Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny all found the back of the net for the Flyers. Konecny’s goal was a game-sealing empty-netter.
Dan Vladar was strong again in net and Sean Couturier collected two assists.
The Flyers (17-9-6) snapped a season-long three-game losing streak (0-0-3). Despite those losses, the Flyers are on a five-game point streak (2-0-3).
Rick Tocchet’s club has earned at least a point in 16 of its last 20 games (11-4-5).
The Flyers are 2-0-0 in their three-game regular-season series against the Canadiens (17-12-4). They won a crazy game at Bell Centre a month and a half ago, beating Montreal in a shootout, 5-4.
The building is known for its lively atmosphere and it’s the home of a team that made the playoffs last season.
The Flyers and Canadiens don’t meet again until the regular-season finale April 14 in Philadelphia.
• Vladar continued to look like one of the Flyers’ best players with 21 saves on 22 shots.
The 28-year-old has already matched his win total from last season, when he went 12-11-6 as the Flames’ backup. Vladar has given up two or fewer goals 13 times in 20 starts with the Flyers.
Both the Flyers and Montreal struck in the final minute of the first period. Alexandre Texier put the Canadiens ahead after a risky pass by Konecny resulted in a neutral-zone turnover. But Grundstrom answered 39 seconds later with his third goal in six games with the Flyers.
Vladar nailed things down for the Flyers with 12 saves in the third period.
Montreal netminder Jacob Fowler stopped 17 of the Flyers’ 20 shots on the night.
• After going over nine months without game action, Rasmus Ristolainen made his season debut and played alongside Nick Seeler on the Flyers’ third defensive pair.
Ristolainen had been recovering from surgery in March on a second triceps tendon rupture.
It didn’t take long for the bruising defenseman to get involved against the Canadiens. Not even nine minutes into the game, Ristolainen delivered a hard and clean hit on Juraj Slafkovsky. The early thump put the Flyers on the power play because Ivan Demidov wanted retribution and went after Ristolainen.
The physicality seemed to set the tone for Ristolainen’s return. He was highly effective with three hits, two blocked shots and a plus-2 rating in 19:18 minutes.
The Flyers are now significantly deeper defensively. A lot of teams would love a Seeler-Ristolainen third pair.
• Brink padded the Flyers’ lead to 3-1 with just 50 seconds left in the second period.
Matvei Michkov set it up with his second assist in the last two games. He found Brink after jumping on a mistake by Fowler behind Montreal’s net.
The Flyers took their lead earlier in the period when Zegras and Konecny executed a 2-on-1 rush. The goal gave Zegras his 33rd point in 32 games, eclipsing his point total from all of last season, when he had 32 in 57 games with the Ducks.
• The Flyers are back in action Thursday when they visit the Sabres (7:30 p.m. ET/ESPN+, Hulu).