Canadiens clip faltering Flyers

Dec 22, 2006 08:12:55

The floundering Philadelphia Flyers were easy pickings for the high-flying Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. Mike Johnson's short-handed goal in the final minute of the second period proved to be the winner as the Canadiens doubled up the Flyers 4-2 in front of 21,273 fans at the Bell Centre.Montreal has prevailed in six of its last nine meetings with Philadelphia, the NHL's worst team.  "These points are worth the same as beating Buffalo," Johnson said. "Two points are two points. Rookie Guillaume Latendresse, Craig Rivet and Chris Higgins also scored as the Canadiens (21-8-5) skated to their season-high fifth straight win.  Andrei Markov had two assists. David Aebischer turned aside 26 of 28 shots for his 100th NHL win, leaving him just 451 shy of Patrick Roy's league record of 551. "It's special," Aebischer said. "One hundred isn't 551, but I'm getting closer." Aebischer highlighted the milestone win by foiling R.J. Umberger on a first-period penalty shot. "I really challenged him on the shot," Aebischer said, referring to Umberger's backhand attempt. "He came in with a lot of speed and I had him covered all the way. It would have taken a really good shot for him to score." Mike Knuble and Jeff Carter scored for the Flyers (8-22-4), mired in a franchise-high eight-game losing streak (0-7-1) dating back to Nov. 30. "You always get tired of leaving the rink with your head down," Knuble said. "As a player, you've got to believe that things will turn around. "We will have our day, too. It cannot continue like this all the time." Antero Niittymaki faced 37 shots in defeat, including 18 in the first period. "Their goalie made a lot of big saves to let them stay in the game," Johnson said. "And then, it became a dogfight." Mike York played 16 minutes but failed to register a shot on goal in his Flyers debut after being acquired Wednesday from the New York Islanders for Randy Robitaille and a fifth-round draft pick. Potent power play Montreal had three seconds remaining in a two-man advantage when Latendresse opened the scoring with his eighth and 3:20 left in the first period. Sixty-nine seconds later and still on the power play, Rivet retrieved his own pass and beat Niittymaki from a sharp angle for his fourth and a 2-0 lead. Knuble cut the deficit with a power-play goal 5:41 into the second period, sweeping a rebound by Aebischer for his ninth goal in 13 games and team-high 14th overall. But a hard-charging Johnson restored Montreal's two-goal margin when he re-directed Markov's centring pass for his seventh at the 19:11 mark. "We have guys who, when they see the opportunity, they want try to go on the offence," Johnson said. "We'll take them when we can get them and that's all part of our plan to kill penalties." It was Montreal's league-leading 10th short-handed goal, yet was swiftly offset by Carter's power-play goal 19 seconds later. Carter has tallied in both games since returning to the lineup. He missed 20 games because of a fractured left tibia in a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Nov. 2. It remained 3-2 until Higgins burst down the wing in transition and he potted his own rebound with 6:03 remaining, giving him 11 goals in 16 games so far this season.