Suzuki, Armia propel Canadiens past Flyers for 3rd straight win

MONTREAL -- Nick Suzuki and Joel Armia each had a goal and an assist to help the Montreal Canadiens win their third straight game, 4-1 against the Philadelphia Flyers at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Jesse Ylonen scored, and Mike Matheson had three assists for the Canadiens (28-32-12), who have won three straight for the first time this season. Cayden Primeau made 29 saves.

“We beat three pretty good teams,” Suzuki said. “It’s obviously a lot better when you’re winning, and I think our energy and vibe in the room has been a lot better over the last couple of days.”

Primeau made 15 saves in the third period, losing his shutout bid with 1:01 remaining.

“We’ve played some really good games, haven’t been rewarded, so to be able to get three in a row feels really good,” Primeau said.

Owen Tippett scored, and Samuel Ersson made 13 saves for the Flyers (36-28-10), who have lost three straight (0-2-1).

Philadelphia remained one point ahead of the Washington Capitals for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Washington lost 5-1 at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday.

“Both teams took a while to get going,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “They score a power-play goal to get on the board, we don’t. We got to our game towards the middle to the end of the second period, but Primeau played very well from then on.”

Suzuki gave Montreal a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 12:58 of the first period. He flipped a shot over Ersson’s right pad from the left edge of the crease off a pass from Juraj Slafkovsky.

It was the 30th goal of the season for Suzuki, who reached the mark for the first time in his career.

“It doesn’t really mean that much to me,” Suzuki said. “I’m just trying to do as much as I can, whatever number it is, offensively, defensively, so that’s obviously a nice number to say.”

Ylonen made it 2-0 at 16:46 with a backhand over Ersson’s left pad in front of the net on the rebound of Jayden Struble’s shot.

Armia pushed it to 3-0 at 17:05 of the third period after scoring an empty-net goal with both teams penalized and the Flyers attacking 5-on-4.

Tippett cut it to 3-1 with 1:01 remaining before Jake Evans put a backhand into an empty net with four seconds remaining for the 4-1 final.

Three potential goals were disallowed in the third, including two by the Flyers. Philadelphia first had a goal disallowed at 1:43 after it was determined that Garnet Hathaway kicked the puck over the goal line.

“It ended up we got more chances,” Hathaway said. “They played well, they were above pucks a lot of the time. They had guys back, they didn’t stay in their zone long and I think that’s wearing on them. And I think that’s why in the third we’re more successful when, really, it’s just the process we’re going with.”

Morgan Frost had a goal disallowed and the clock was reset to 5:42 after Montreal successfully challenged for offside.

“I think we dominated the second half of the game and just couldn’t score,” Frost said.

Suzuki had a goal at 10:49 waved off immediately for a high stick.

“It was just kind of slow, a lot of reviews, challenges,” Suzuki said about the third period. “I think mentally we’ve got to stay a little bit sharper through all of that, and it was nice to get a couple of empty-net goals to seal it off.”

NOTES: Matheson, who has 51 points (10 goals, 41 assists) in 72 games, is the first Canadiens defenseman with 50 points in a season since P.K. Subban had 51 in 2015-16 (six goals, 45 assists) in 68 games. … Slafkovsky, who turns 20 on Saturday, had an assist to extend his point streak to nine games, tying the third-longest by a teenager in NHL history. Patrik Laine had a 15-game streak in 2017-18 for the Winnipeg Jets, and Andrei Svechnikov had 11-game and nine-game point streaks for the Carolina Hurricanes in 2019-20. … Suzuki’s goal was his 10th on the power play, the most by a Montreal player since Shea Weber scored 12 power-play goals in 2016-17.