MONTREAL ― It feels like it’s been a long December already for the Flyers, having entered Tuesday with just two wins in seven games.

But the 2-2-3 record wasn’t indicative of how they’ve been playing of late, and on Tuesday night, it showed in a 4-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Flyers snapped a three-game losing streak — all lost after regulation — and extended their point streak to five games.

Comeback kings

For the 22nd time in 32 games this season, the Flyers trailed 1-0. And for the 12th time, they won (12-6-4). It is also their 13th comeback win.

How did they get into a hole this time? Travis Konecny fed a standing Christian Dvorak above the Canadiens’ blue line, and the center tried to shovel it into the offensive zone, but it hit Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier and went the other way.

Montreal had a three-on-two that turned into a four-on-two with forward Alexandre Texier firing the wrister past Dan Vladař from the high slot to take a 1-0 lead.

But, as commonly said here, the hockey Gods do giveth and taketh, and the same line gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead.

Konecny knocked the puck away from Ivan Demidov in the Flyers’ end. Defenseman Emil Andrae got the puck and chipped it to Trevor Zegras as he and Konecny broke out two-on-one. After a give-and-go, Zegras got the puck back and fired it five-hole past Montreal goaltender Jacob Fowler.

Zegras leads the Flyers in goals with 14, and now has 33 points — one more than his point total in 57 games last season for the Anaheim Ducks. The New York native is on a four-game goal streak and a five-game point streak with seven points.

New lines here

Coach Rick Tocchet switched two of his lines. Winger Carl Grundström moved up to play with Owen Tippett and Sean Couturier, and Matvei Michkov shifted to the line of Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.

It paid off twofold.

First, Grundström tied the game up 1-1 just 39 seconds after the Canadiens opened the scoring with a minute remaining in the first period. Couturier got the puck on the right wing and sent a leading pass down to Tippett in the circle. The winger then sent the puck across to Grundström as he crashed the net backdoor.

Since re-entering the lineup on Dec. 9, the Swede has two goals and an assist in five games.

Then in the second period, Fowler went out of his net to play a dump-in. He waited behind the goal and ended up leaving it — right for Michkov. The Russian picked up the puck and fed Brink in the slot for the easy goal.

Brink now has nine goals on the season, three shy of his career high set last season in 79 games.

Ristolainen returns

Rasmus Ristolainen returned to the lineup with authority. Playing in his first game since March 11 after undergoing surgery on a right triceps tendon rupture, he didn’t miss a beat.

Tocchet talked about Ristolainen’s big shot, and he almost scored on his first seconds of action in more than 280 days. On his first shift, the big blueliner sent a point shot on goal before sending another off the crossbar later.

Across more than 18 minutes of action, Ristolainen had three shot attempts and three hits. But none of the hits was bigger than the one that sent Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovský flying in center ice. Demidov took exception to the hit, and Ristolainen drew a penalty as the Russian winger kept cross-checking him away from the play.

The Flyers didn’t score and went 0 for 3 on the night with the man advantage.

Breakaways

Konecny added an empty-netter for his ninth of the season. … Ty Murchison was loaned back to Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League to make room for Ristolainen on the roster. … Zegras played in his 300th NHL game. … Vladař was masterful, especially in the third period with the Canadiens pushing. He made a toe save on Slafkovský from the right circle and then slid across to stop Lane Hutson on the rebound.

Up next

The Flyers head to Buffalo, N.Y., to take on the Sabres.

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