MONTREAL – Mike Johnson scored Montreal’s league-leading 10th short-handed goal and the Canadiens extended their season-high winning streak to five games with a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.

Guillaume Latendresse, Craig Rivet and Chris Higgins also scored for Montreal. Canadiens goalie David Aebischer, who made a pad save on R.J. Umberger’s penalty shot in the first period, stopped 26 shots.

Philadelphia’s team-record losing streak reached eight games. The Flyers, who have yet to win in December, have lost seven straight in regulation over the course of an 0-7-1 losing streak which began with a 4-3 shootout loss in New Jersey on Dec. 2.

Johnson scored his seventh goal of the season with 48.4 seconds remaining in the second, combining with fellow penalty-killers Radek Bonk and Andrei Markov to put Montreal up 3-1.

Latendresse and Rivet scored power-play goals 1:09 apart late in the first to give the Canadiens a 2-0 lead.

Mike Knuble and Jeff Carter scored power-play goals for the Flyers, both of which drew Philadelphia to within one. Carter’s came with 30 seconds left in the period on the same power play as Johnson’s short-handed goal.

Antero Niittymaki made 33 saves for the Flyers, who were outshot 37-28.

Mike York made his Philadelphia debut after he was acquired from the New York Islanders on Wednesday in a trade for Randy Robitaille and a fifth round pick next year.

Aebischer made his first start since a 4-3 win over Boston on Dec. 12 which began Montreal’s current winning streak.

In the first period, Montreal had an 18-8 margin in shots and a 6-2 advantage in power plays.

Latendresse scored his eighth of the season on a 5-on-3 advantage at 16:40, and Rivet got his fourth at 17:49 as the man advantage continued.

Notes: York wore No. 61. Bobby Clarke’s No. 16 is retired by the Flyers. … Knuble’s goal was his team-leading 14th. … Montreal has sold out 77 consecutive regular season games.

AP-ES-12-21-06 2227EST

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