Canadiens score 3 in 3rd period to rally past Flyers for 4th straight win

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens scored three times in the third period to rally past the Philadelphia Flyers for their fourth straight win, 3-2 at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist, and Brendan Gallagher and Lane Hutson each scored for Montreal (37-30-9). Sam Montembeault made 21 saves.

“(Suzuki) has been so consistent all year and he’s a driving offensive player for us and he’s great in his own end too,” Hutson said. “So it’s awesome. He’s been great all year.”

The Canadiens have not lost in regulation at home in nine games (8-0-1) since Feb. 9. It was Montreal’s NHL-leading ninth third-period comeback win.

“We’re very confident, especially at home,” Suzuki said. “It’s just one goal and we’ve come back from worse so we’ve got a confident group that we can keep playing and get our chances and capitalize on them.”

The Canadiens hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference with 83 points, four ahead of the New York Rangers, who lost 4-0 to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

“We’ve also been in this position before and kind of let everyone get back in,” Gallagher said. “So it’s game after game. Points are so critical. You’ve got to keep the same mentality. Desperation is huge right now and that’s the way you play. Every game is important and we’re continuing to push.

“We’re having a lot of fun with it right now but our desperation level can’t drop. We can’t give them any hope.”

Ryan Poehling had a goal and an assist, and Samuel Ersson made 23 saves for Philadelphia (31-37-9), which was eliminated from playoff contention.

“You’re up by one going into the third on the road so I think that’s a good situation, I think any team would take that,” Ersson said. “So obviously it [stinks]. We couldn’t find a way to get the win.”

The Flyers had won their first three games under interim coach Brad Shaw, who took over behind the bench after John Tortorella was fired on March 27.

Poehling gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at 4:10 of the first period when he put a backhand over Montembeault on a pass from Jakob Pelletier.

“It’s a great pass by Pelletier to get it,” Shaw said. “It’s a really outstanding pick up on the backhand, and he gets a lot on the backhand as well. The execution on that play was exactly what we talked about trying to do a little more regularly, we just couldn’t seem to do it as often as we wanted.”

Gallagher tied it 1-1 at 1:24 of the third period. He snapped a one-timer past Ersson from low in the right face-off circle on Jake Evans’ pass from behind the goal line.

Hutson put Montreal ahead 2-1 at 2:40 when he drove the left side on after going coast-to-coast and put a wrist shot from a sharp angle over Ersson's right shoulder.

Suzuki, who assisted on Hutson’s goal, made it 3-1 at 10:39 with a short-handed goal. He chased down the puck in the right corner, curled out front from behind the net and sent in a wrist shot from the right circle.

“He’s a dog on a bone out there,” Hutson said. “So to see him win that puck and kind of will it into a 3-1 game, it was awesome.”

Tyson Foerster scored a power-play goal with 40 seconds remaining to cut it to 3-2 with a shot from the right side of the slot.

“It was a tight game all the way through,” Poehling said. “You’ve seen the last few weeks they’ve been doing that, coming back in games. So we knew it was coming. I thought we fought hard until the end, made it a game, just got unlucky there.”

NOTES: Flyers forward Karsen Dorwart played 10:32 and had two shots on goal in his NHL debut. The 22-year-old signed an entry level contract with Philadelphia as an undrafted free agent after his junior season with Michigan State. … Canadiens forward Josh Anderson was a late scratch for family reasons. Oliver Kapanen replaced him and played 8:18 with one shot on goal in his first game for Montreal since Nov. 5, when he played his 12th of the Canadiens’ first 13 games before returning to Europe to play for Timra IK of the Swedish Hockey League. … Gallagher reached 20 goals for the fifth time, all with Montreal, and for the first time since he scored 22 in 2019-20. … Hutson’s goal was the 16th time this season the Canadiens have scored the go-ahead goal in third period, which is tied with the Winnipeg Jets for the third-most in the NHL this season. The Washington Capitals have done it 20 times, followed by the Vegas Golden Knights (19).