The 2025-26 Philadelphia Flyers might be the greatest team to play from behind. The Flyers (17-9-6) once again took over the game after allowing the first goal to pave their way to a 4-1 win on the road against the Montréal Canadiens (17-12-4) on Tuesday night at Bell Centre.
The win snapped a three-game losing skid while at the same time extended the Flyers’ point streak to five games. Maybe it was the off-day trip to the spa which Dan Vladař mentioned postgame, but the Flyers netminder played exceptional, especially in the third period. Vladař stopped 21 of 22 shots between the pipes and improved his record to 6-1-2 over his previous nine starts. He has a .910 SV% in that stretch. Travis Konecny and Sean Couturier both had a multi-point night. Trevor Zegras buried one too in his 300th career game.
When the Flyers and Canadiens first met in a wild early November matchup, the opening period featured three goals on 14 shots and included three penalties. The second go around between the two clubs brought the same energy as it did six weeks ago with Rasmus Ristolainen beginning the festivities, the player who had been sidelined for the last 280 days.
Ristolainen missed 47 games recovering from a ruptured right triceps tendon. In his first outing back, the 6-foot-4, 208lb defenseman made his presence known out the gate throwing his weight around to lay a hit on Montréal captain Nick Suzuki then followed the heavy collision by decking Juraj Slafkovský. The Canadiens young phenom Ivan Demidov retaliated by cross-checking Ristolainen which only jeopardized his team as Philadelphia was awarded a power play.
“He’s awesome. I think we have a young group, so we appreciate every single older and wiser guy in our jersey,” Vladař joked about Ristolainen returning to the lineup. “Really good player, and an even better person. He worked really hard to get back as soon as possible. We all are really happy for him, and I thought he played an amazing game… I thought that he was really good, good patience on the puck, and really loud back there. He was amazing and hopefully he keeps playing the same way.”
The Flyers’ power play has been atrocious of late, scoring just five times in their last 42 attempts. As expected, Philadelphia stayed snakebitten on their first excursion on the man advantage. They were kept off the scoreboard again as Montréal killed off a tripping infraction by Alexandre Carrier minutes after.
The Canadiens responded with the ice back at 5-on-5 and opened the scoring. Konecny tried forcing a pass through center ice that got picked off, springing Montréal the other way. Josh Anderson dropped the puck over to Jake Evans, who connected with Alexandre Texier uncovered for a prime scoring chance between the hashmarks. Texier ripped one over Vladař’s shoulder to make it 22 of 32 games where the Flyers allowed the first goal.
Per usual, the comeback kids evened the score 39 seconds later. Travis Sanheim started the rush with the newly formed line of Couturier, Owen Tippett, and Carl Grundström. Tippett fed a pass to a trailing Grundström and the Swedish forward cashed in to tie the game with 20 seconds remaining in the first period. It’s Grundström’s third goal and fourth point in five games since being recalled. He’s taken advantage of his opportunity while filling the vacant role with Tyson Foerster out due to an upper body injury.
“It was huge because they scored late also. It was huge that we responded right away going into the second tied instead of down one,” Couturier said. “We capitalized on our chances when we needed.”
Possibly still rattled with what Ristolainen did to his teammate in the first period, Demidov turned the puck over in the offensive zone sending Konecny and Zegras the other way. Zegras moved in all alone with Montréal’s rookie netminder Jacob Fowler and opened him up, sliding one through the five-hole to give the Flyers the 2-1 lead.
What a way for Zegras to cap off his 300th career game by extending his scoring streak to four games. Zegras bypassed his points total from the prior season in 24 fewer contests. He leads the Flyers in goals (14) and points (33).
Pressure from the Canadiens sparked following Zegras’ tally, but Vladař was there to turn aside the three or four quality chances generated. The Flyers thanked Vladař and gave him an early Christmas present which was a two-goal cushioning.
Fowler went behind the net to play the puck and unbeknownst to the rookie, Matvei Michkov sneaked around to strip him blindly. Michkov threw the puck out in front to Bobby Brink crashing down low and making it 3-1 Flyers.
Keeping a pesky Canadiens squad off the board in the final stanza was now the Flyers’ agenda. Philadelphia let Montréal come to them as they sat back and defended. The problem with this was the Canadiens manufactured 10 shots pampering Vladař, who stood tall denying each one.
As minutes trickled off the clock, the Canadiens pulled Fowler for the extra attacker. Konecny, with already three empty net goals this year, put the game to rest after firing the puck into the exposed cage. Konecny has now recorded 12 points over his last nine games.
Philadelphia went into Montréal twice this season and left with all four points.
“It’s a tough building to play in and we won two games in here. A lot of good efforts from individuals. Vladdy again was great. I thought Risto was really good for us, for a guy that’s not played in nine months to put that effort in. Even Yorkie, the last two games for being out eight or nine days. I give those two a lot of credit. They added a lot for our defense. I thought our defense played well tonight,” Rick Tocchet said.
The Flyers will continue their road trip and take on the Buffalo Sabres (14-14-4) Thursday night. The opening faceoff is at 7:30 pm ET.
