PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- Jose Theodore made 31 saves, including 15 in the final period that helped the Montreal Canadiens preserve a 3-2 victory Thursday night over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Theodore entered the season as Montreal's backup goaltender but assumed the starting role after Jeff Hackett went down with a shoulder injury in late October. Hackett returned Wednesday in a 3-3 tie with Atlanta, snapping Theodore's string of 16 straight starts.
In that span, Theodore was 8-5-3 with two shutouts and currently is riding a three-game unbeaten streak.
Defenseman Sheldon Souray posted two assists for Montreal, which extended its unbeaten streak to four games (2
2).
Philadelphia's Simon Gagne opened the scoring 4 1/2 minutes into the second period, but Montreal responded with goals by Chad Kilger, Richard Zednik and Doug Gilmore to take a 3-1 lead into
the third period.
The Flyers replaced starting goalie Roman Cechmanek with Brian Boucher at the start of the final period.
Philadelphia cut the deficit to 3-2 on defenseman Kim Johnsson's fifth of the season but were unable to take advantage of a power play with 3 1/2 minutes to play.
