Briere’s hat trick leads Flyers to 6-2 win and home-and-home sweep over Canadiens

Flyers complete home-and-home sweep of Canadiens

MONTREAL — Daniel Briere had three goals, and Jeff Carter scored his third goal against Montreal in two nights, leading the Philadelphia Flyers to a 6-2 victory over the Canadiens on Saturday night.

Briere opened the scoring 4:37 in and put the Flyers up 5-1 with 6 seconds left in the second with his second goal of the game against Jaroslav Halak. Briere completed his hat trick when he beat Carey Price on a penalty shot midway through the third for his 21st goal.

Mike Richards and Blair Betts also scored for Philadelphia, and Scott Hartnell had two assists.

Michael Leighton made 26 saves for his second straight win over Montreal as the Flyers swept the home-and-home series in the final games for both teams prior to the Olympic break.

Though he is not currently on Canada’s Olympic roster, Carter is expected to travel as requested by Canada’s executive director Steve Yzerman to Vancouver, where he will play for the team if Anaheim’s Ryan Getzlaf is unavailable because of injury.

Brian Gionta and Scott Gomez scored power-play goals for the Canadiens, who lost for the third time in four games following a three-game winning streak.

Halak stopped 12 shots in two periods for Montreal. Price replaced him to begin the third and made 8 saves the rest of the way.

Richards made it 2-0 midway through the opening period with his 24th goal on a power-play. Carter, who scored twice on Price in Friday night’s 3-2 win, beat Halak for his 27th at 15:50 to put Philadelphia up 3-0.

Gionta drew Montreal to 3-1 when he tipped Roman Hamrlik’s shot past Leighton for his 17th goal 6:59 into the second.

Betts restored the Flyers’ three-goal margin with a short-handed goal at 10:38. Betts drove in on a breakaway and fired a shot past Halak for his seventh goal, an unassisted effort that made it 4-1.

Briere got his 20th goal — his second of the game — at 19:54 when he deflected Chris Pronger’s shot to put Philadelphia up 5-1.

Philadelphia’s Darrell Powe was given a boarding minor 5:57 into the third for checking Tomas Plekanec into the boards from behind.

Gomez scored nine seconds into the ensuing power play to draw Montreal within 5-2.

Powe got a boarding major and a game misconduct with 58 seconds remaining Friday night for his hit from behind on Jaroslav Spacek.

Spacek, who left and did not return Friday, was back in Montreal’s lineup Saturday night.

NOTES: Flyers C Ian Laperriere dropped Montreal’s Ryan O’Byrne to end their fight off the opening faceoff 4 seconds in. … Canadiens D Hal Gill played his 900th game. … Montreal D Andrei Markov missed his second straight game because of a lower-body injury. Markov is expected to play for Russia in the Olympics.