Canadiens bounce back from shellacking with victory
MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens rebounded from an embarrassing outing a night earlier with a 5-4 victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Andrei Markov, Greg Pateryn, Alex Galchenyuk, Phillip Danault and Tomas Plekanec scored for the Canadiens (10-1-1), who handed coach Michel Therrien his 250th win behind the Montreal bench.
Carey Price made 34 saves for the Canadiens.
Chris VandeVelde, Shayne Gostisbehere, Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny replied for the Flyers (6-6-1). Goaltender Michal Neuvirth, making his third start in four nights, stopped 12 shots.
Montreal got off to a much better start than in Friday's game, when it lost 10-0 in Columbus. Markov got his team on the board 1:06 into the first period. Canadiens winger Andrew Shaw forced Flyers center Sean Couturier into a turnover, sending his clearing attempt right to Markov, who fired from the top of the left circle for his first of the season.
VandeVelde tied it 3:26 later. After a Montreal icing, the Flyers forward picked up the loose puck following a scramble off the draw and beat Price glove side.
Gostisbehere gave the visitors the lead at 8:30 on a sequence that began with Konecny's breakaway and led Montreal to get hemmed in its own end. Jakub Voracek picked up the rebound of Michael Del Zotto's point shot and fired over to Gostisbehere in the right circle.
The lead wouldn't last long, though, as 39 seconds later, the puck made its way through a scramble of bodies in the slot out to Pateryn, who wired it from the top of the circle.
Montreal regained the lead at 18:38 of the second period. Markov drove up the left side to create an odd-man rush and dished off to Alexander Radulov, who showed patience before passing it on to Galchenyuk, alone at the faceoff dot.
Danault put Montreal ahead by a pair at 3:52 of the third period. Neuvirth was slow to move the puck behind his net and Torrey Mitchell picked it off, sending it to Danault in front.
Giroux cut into the Canadiens' lead during a double-minor at 9:16 when his shot from the left circle beat a screened Price.
Plekanec got the lead back 21 seconds later with Montreal still shorthanded as he slapped one from the left circle for his first of the season.
Konecny again brought the Flyers to within one when he tipped in defenseman Ivan Provov's point shot on the power play with 3:44 to go.
NOTES: Despite Friday's historical loss to Columbus, the Canadiens dressed the same lineup, leaving LW Daniel Carr and D Joel Hanley as scratches. ... Flyers and former Montreal RW Dale Weise drew back in after sitting out Thursday's game as a healthy scratch, marking his first game against the Canadiens since being traded last season and then signing with Philadelphia as a free agent. ... D Michael Del Zotto made his season debut for Philadelphia after missing the first three weeks of the season with an injury. ... The Flyers scratched C Nick Cousins and D Nick Schultz, while C Boyd Gordon and D Andrew MacDonald missed their third and second games, respectively, with injury. ... The game marked the first time in the last four games that the Flyers were not involved in a back-to-back series.