PHILADELPHIA – A hockey team usually can tell if it is doing something right in a playoff series: Just look in the opponent’s net to see if something is different.

Monday night, the Flyers chased Montreal’s rookie goalie, Carey Price, scoring three times on him in the second period of a 3-2 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Flyers lead the series, two games to one.

Game 4 is Tuesday. Price, who faced just 12 shots, was yanked for backup Jaroslav Halak, who worked the final period in his NHL playoff debut.

The Flyers built a three-goal lead before the Canadiens rallied in the third period on a five-minute power play. Montreal outshot the Flyers, 34-14.

“We have momentum right now, there’s no question,” winger Scottie Upshall said.

The Flyers also had a major scare. R.J. Umberger took a hip check from Tomas Plekanec on his sore left knee early in the third period and was helped off the ice. He returned. Umberger missed six games during the stretch run because of a slightly torn ligament in the knee.

Also, Derian Hatcher was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding. The penalty will automatically be reviewed by the league to determine whether it merits a suspension for Game 4.

Hatcher’s penalty was nearly fatal to his team as Montreal scored twice during that long power play. First, the Habs got a tip-in goal by Plekanec, then Saku Koivu scored off a rebound, making it a 3-2 nail-biter.

The Flyers did, however, manage to kill a mystifying interference call on Lasse Kukkonen late in the game.

The Flyers did yeoman’s work defensively on the Canadiens, using their sticks the entire way to block shots and passing lanes. They had 45 blocked shots in the two games in Montreal and had 11 through two periods Monday night. The Habs continually had rushes to the net disrupted, causing them to stall in mid-stride.

Montreal seemed a bit jittery in the opening period as the Canadiens’ stick work was off the mark.

Koivu came out of the penalty box for an easy breakaway and elected to go with a late backhander that Marty Biron swatted aside with his stick near the six-minute mark.

Four minutes later, the Habs got a five-on-three power play for a full two minutes with Steve Downie (slashing) and Sami Kapanen (hooking) in the box. It marked a crucial momentum shift in the game, and the Flyers’ penalty killers were outstanding.

Of course, it helped that Christopher Higgins muffed a pass from Alexei Kovalev with an open left side of the net staring at him. Then Biron made a glove save on Mark Streit, and Andrei Markov nailed the post. The penalty kill flipped the momentum back to the Flyers.

There was a major scrum in the final two minutes of the period when Downie tripped Price going for a puck in the corner and then was double-teamed by Montreal’s Mike Komisarek and Maxim Lapierre. Hatcher came crashing in to even things out. Downie picked up an extra minor for tripping, giving Montreal yet another power play that the Canadiens frittered away.

An extended shift from Upshall, when his line mates were already off the ice and resting, gave the Flyers their first goal at 7:04 of the second period.

Upshall took a drop pass from Joffrey Lupul in the right circle, then used Montreal rookie Ryan O’Byrne as a screen on Price before beating him with a long-distance shot. It was Upshall’s second goal of the playoffs.

Lupul “made a great play carrying the puck up the ice with a lot of speed,” Upshall said. “He chipped it outside and carried his speed through the middle, and I used him and then their D-man as a screen and made a good shot.”

The Flyers’ penalty-killing was sharp early on Monday night and even produced a shorthanded goal from Mike Richards at 15:12 of the second. He picked off a pass, carried the puck into the Montreal zone, then cut to the middle for a shot off Price’s glove hand that nicked the right post and went in.

Richards’ goal gave the Flyers a 2-0 lead. It became 3-0 when Umberger, who had been denied by Price during an earlier shorthanded attempt, scored from the left circle on a rebound at 18:19 of the second. It was Umberger’s fifth goal of the playoffs and fourth in this series.

The period ended with Biron making a glove snare of a Koivu one-timer.

Loose pucks. Before the game, Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau made two lineup changes, inserting Guillaume Latendresse for Mathieu Dandenault on right wing and O’Bryne for defenseman Patrice Brisebois. There were no changes in the Flyers’ lineup. … Some Flyers fans, showing the same lack of class exhibited by Canadiens fans over the weekend, booed during the Canadian national anthem.

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(c) 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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AP-NY-04-28-08 2220EDT