Brendan Gallagher scored his first career NHL hat trick to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a 5-1 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday.

The victory gives Montreal a four-point cushion in the Eastern Conference wild-card race. The Canadiens now have 73 points in 61 games after amassing just 71 points all last season.

Gallagher got on the scoresheet just 58 seconds into the game. The forward combined on a passing play with Phillip Danault and then fired a wrist shot past Philadelphia goalie Carter Hart.

At 10:33 of the first period, Gallagher's shot from the side of the net squeezed between Hart and the post for his second goal of the night. He completed the hat trick 2:56 into the second, putting the final touch on a Canadiens rush into the Flyers' end after Philadelphia was caught on a line change.

Gallagher now has 26 goals on the season, the second-highest total of his seven NHL campaigns. After hitting the two-goal plateau 10 different times in his career, Gallagher's hat trick came in his 467th NHL game.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Tomas Tatar also scored for Canadiens, who improved to 8-1-2 in their past 11 home games.

Michael Raffl scored 10:23 into the third period for Philadelphia's lone goal of the game.

Carey Price saved 29 of 30 shots for his 25th victory of the season.

For the second game in a row, Hart was pulled in the first period after allowing three goals on nine shots. Hart lasted just 10:33 against Montreal, almost a mirror image of his 10:23 of action in the Flyers' 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

Brian Elliott stopped 29 of 31 shots in relief of Hart.

The Flyers lost for just the fourth time in their past 16 games (12-3-1), though the team has now absorbed lopsided defeats in each of its past two games. With the Monday trade deadline looming, Philadelphia is now seven points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for the final Eastern Conference playoff berth.

--Field Level Media