MONTREAL (AP) -- Mark Recchi made himself right at home.

Recchi, playing his first game in Montreal since being traded to Philadelphia last spring, scored the go-ahead goal in the Flyers' 3-2 victory over the Canadiens on Saturday night.

	Former teammates John Vanbiesbrouck of Philadelphia and Dainius Zubrus of Montreal get reacquainted during the first period Saturday.

"I didn't play very well tonight," Recchi said. "But I guess the important thing is we got the goal to win.

"We played pretty poorly in the second period. We tried to skate a little more. We felt we stopped skating and we let them take it to us so we wanted to come out strong and play our style."

Recchi's 11th goal of the season came 6:36 into the third period when he backhanded in a rebound from the edge of the crease. The Canadiens argued that Recchi's stick made contact above the crossbar on the deflection.

"Even if it was a high stick, I think it nullifies it when it hits their player," Recchi said. "I was lucky it bounced right to me."

Chris Therien and Sandy McCarthy also scored for the Flyers, 4-0-1 in their last five games. Eric Desjardins and rookie Simon Gagne each had two assists.

Recchi, originally traded to the Canadiens in a deal that sent John LeClair and Eric Desjardins to Philadelphia, played over four seasons for Montreal before he was traded back to the Flyers last March 10.

The crowd of 21,273 at the Molson Centre -- only the Canadiens' second sellout of the season in 14 home games and first since its season opener against Toronto -- saw the Flyers pick up their first victory in Montreal since Dec. 12, 1997.

Dainius Zubrus, acquired by the Canadiens in the trade that sent Recchi back to the Flyers, had a goal and an assist for Montreal. Karl Dykhuis also scored for Montreal.

The Canadiens, who have 10 regulars out of the lineup with injuries, have lost three in a row since putting together a season-high four-game winning streak.

"It's just very difficult to keep losing these close games," Montreal coach Alain Vigneault said. "We have to operate without so many of our good players, and this being our third game in four nights was really tough."

Montreal opened the scoring on Zubrus' power-play goal 11:06 into the game. Zubrus beat John Vanbiesbrouck, screened on the play by defenseman Luke Richardson, with a low slap shot.

Therien scored his first goal since Feb. 11 on a power play at 13:54. Philadelphia took a 2-1 lead 3:26 into the second period when McCarthy beat Jose Theodore with a slap shot.

Dykhuis scored his fourth goal of the season just past the midway point of the second period to tie it at 2.