MONTREAL (AP) – Simon Gagne had two goals and an assist, and the Philadelphia Flyers scored three second-period goals to post a 4-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.

Gagne set up Mike Knuble’s go-ahead goal 15:43 into the second before making it 3-1 on a power play with 11.9 seconds remaining in the period. He added his second goal of the game – his team-leading 13th – with a short-handed effort with 2:08 left in the third.

Sami Kapanen scored early in the second and Antero Niitymaki made 29 saves overall for Philadelphia, which won its second game in as many days following a three-game losing streak.

Alex Kovalev and Saku Koivu scored for Montreal, which ended a season-high three-game winning streak.

Montreal goalie David Aebischer stopped 22 shots in his first start since Nov. 16, when he was pulled after the second period of a 5-1 loss in Florida for the second start in a row.

Knuble put a loose puck into an open net for his fourth goal with 4:17 left in the second to tie it at 2.

Gagne made it a two-goal margin just one second before Montreal was able to kill off the second of two penalties late in the period, including a 1:28 stretch where they were two men down with defensemen Craig Rivet and Sheldon Souray in the penalty box.

Koivu, who scored the tying goal in the Canadiens 2-1 overtime win in Buffalo the night before, got his sixth of the season on a power play 3:22 into the third to draw Montreal to within one.

Kovalev, who beat Niitymaki over the right shoulder with a hard wrist shot 8:04 into the game, fed a pass from the right side to Koivu, who tipped the puck between the Philadelphia goalie’s pads to the delight of the crowd of 21,273.

It was Montreal’s 70th consecutive regular-season sellout at the Bell Centre. The Canadiens set a single season attendance record of 872,193 last season and have sold out every regular-season game since Jan. 8, 2004, when 20,706 were on hand for a 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay.

Montreal led 1-0 after the first, though its margin could have been much bigger with all the scoring chances the Canadiens had early in the period.

Souray had a short-handed chance as his slap shot trickled through Niitymaki’s pads and just wide of the left post. Tomas Plekanec shot over the net on a partial break later in the same penalty kill and Koivu had a good scoring chance denied when Joni Pitkanen was called for holding at 3:25.

Kapanen tied it 1-1 with his fourth goal 1:34 into the middle period.

Notes: Tim Raines took in the game. An All-Star in the 1980s with the now-defunct Expos, Raines was given a warm ovation late in the first period when he was introduced to the crowd and shown on the video scoreboard wearing a No. 30 Canadiens jersey with his name across the back. … Souray fought Flyers D Derian Hatcher with 1:20 remaining. … Canadiens G Cristobal Huet had made seven straight appearances – including two relief appearances for Aebischer – before sitting this one out. He has won five straight starts, and seven of eight.

AP-ES-11-25-06 2218EST

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