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Schneider's overtime goal helps Canadiens clip Flyers

Feb 28, 2009 - 5:11 AM PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- After both teams captured a valuable point in regulation, Mathieu Schneider made sure the Montreal Canadiens left overtime in Philadelphia with the extra point.

The veteran defenseman scored a power-play goal with 99 seconds remaining in the extra session Friday to lift the Canadiens to a 4-3 victory over the Flyers.

With Scottie Upshall serving a two-minute minor for goaltender interference, Schneider took a feed from All-Star Alexei Kovalev and beat Antero Niittymaki with a wrist shot to give the Canadiens their third straight victory.

"We were pounding the puck," Schneider said. "We had shots that didn't go through. I thought that if I could get a wrist shot through it could be a great chance for us. I think that their defenseman got a bit of a screen on the goalie and I was able to get it through."

Kovalev recorded a goal and two assists, Tomas Plekanec scored and set up another and Tom Kostopoulos also tallied as Montreal scored three times in a 2:04 span late in the first period to erase a 2-0 deficit.

"I'm really happy how we came back after being down 2-0 and winning the game," Montreal captain Saku Koivu said. "It's a tough building to play in and we wanted to catch these guys in the standings. This was kind of a must-win for us. They got a point but we got two and that is a big plus for us."

Joffrey Lupul, captain Mike Richards and Simon Gagne tallied for Philadelphia, which lost for the second time in its last seven contests and sits three points ahead of Montreal for fourth place in the East

After spotting the Flyers a 2-0 lead, the Canadiens came back with a flurry to take a lead into the locker rooms after the opening period.

"We just adjusted to the speed of the game," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "They caught us by surprise. After the first two goals, we settled down and plays a bit quicker. We kept the puck in their zone and we made them make mistakes and we took advantage of our chances."

Plekanec scored on the power play with 3:35 remaining and Kostopoulos tallied 13 seconds later to knot the score at 2-2.

A blast from the blue line by Kovalev deflected off the shoulder of Niittymaki and trickled over the goal line with 91 seconds left in the session for a 3-2 lead after the first.

"If it wasn't for him in the first 10 minutes we would have been down 5-2 instead of 3-2," Philadelphia coach John Stevens said of Niittymaki. "He had to make a couple of 10-bell saves when we were just giving pucks away and they were getting point-blankers in front of our net. I thought he deserved a chance to stay in and fight for the win and I thought he responded well."

Niittymaki stopped 32 shots, including a number of glove saves in overtime before being solved for the game-winner.

The scoring pace slowed down in the second as Gagne's breakaway goal against Jaroslav Halak with 6:17 remaining in the period was the lone goal despite Philadelphia holding an 18-5 advantage in shots.

Halak made 35 saves for the Canadiens, who converted on 2-of-5 chances with the man advantage while killing off all eight opportunities for the Flyers, including a pair of 5-on-3 chances.

"It was the sloppy five-on-three and the 10-minute lull in the first period that was a killer," Richards said. "We are coming up on a stretch where we can't do that. We need to focus more to not have those. We may have thought it was an easy game after the quick start but they capitalized on their chances and we didn't."

Lupul opened the scoring just 28 seconds into the contest and Richards stretched the lead to 2-0 8:14 into the first period with his 24th goal of the season.