Read sparks Flyers victory

Matt Read ended a long scoring drought with a strategy that sounded easy: He just shot the puck hard.

Read netted the tiebreaking goal early in the third period to lead the host Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-1 win Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens.

Claude Giroux also scored and Sean Couturier had an empty-netter in the final seconds for the Flyers, who opened a five-game homestand — their longest of the season — by winning for the fourth time in their past five games.

After a 5-1 loss Tuesday night at Carolina in which the Flyers had just six shots through 2½ periods, coach Dave Hakstol benched 23year-old defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere and 19-year-old forward Travis Konecny.

Hakstol kept Read in the lineup, however, even though the Philadelphia forward hadn’t scored a goal since Nov. 3.

“I just had an opportunity to shoot the puck and I shot it as hard as I could,” Read said. “I got lucky. The good man upstairs was looking out for me tonight.”

Read put Philadelphia in front with a perfectly placed slap shot from the slot on a 3-on-2 break with 16:28 left.

“That was a big goal,” Hakstol said. “Obviously, it was a long time coming for Matt. Sometimes when the puck’s not going in the net you have a tendency to shoot it less, even.”

“They played a good game, but on our side we didn’t compete at all,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said.

Other games Senators 5, Lightning 2:

Mark Stone had two goals and an assist as visiting Ottawa beat Tampa Bay.

Rangers 2, Sabres 1: Chris Kreider scored his 20the goal this season at 3:56 of overtime to lift visiting New York to a victory against Buffalo.

Predators 2, Oilers 0: Nashville’s Viktor Arvidsson scored at 1:26 of the second and Ryan Johansen added insurance at 19:21 of the second to support Pekka Rinne’s 31-save shutout against visiting Edmonton.

Jets 4, Stars 3: Mark Scheifle scored two goals as visiting Winnipeg squeezed out a win against Dallas.

Blackhawks 4, Coyotes 3: Patrick Kane and Artemi Panarin each had a goal and an assist to spark visiting Chicago to a win against Arizona.

Blues 5, Maple Leafs 1: Paul Stastny had two goals and an assist as host St. Louis beat Toronto.