MONTREAL _ The Flyers were in last place in the eight-team Metropolitan Division in early December. Fans were calling for coach Dave Hakstol to be dismissed.
Less than three months later, they sit atop the division.
The Flyers climbed into first place Monday night with their sixth straight victory, a 1-0 shootout win over the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. They moved ahead of Washington, which lost to dangerous Columbus, 5-1.
Both goalies took turns making sensational saves in a wide-open overtime before Sean Couturier won it in the sixth round of the shootout.
With the hard-earned victory, the Flyers increased their road winning streak to seven, went to 10-0-2 record in their last 12 games, and are 26-8-3 since ending a 10-game winning streak on Dec. 4.
Recently acquired goalie Petr Mrazek was superb as the Flyers swept the season series from Montreal _ they won all three games _ for just the third time since the teams began meeting in 1967-68. The Flyers also swept the Habs in 1995-96 and 2002-03.
The Flyers, who haven't won a division title since 2010-11, became the second team in franchise history to win 10 games in February. They finished the month 10-1-2, joining the 1975-76 team (10-0-4), which was a Stanley Cup finalist.
With the game scoreless, Montreal rookie Charlie Lindgren made a point-blank save on Travis Konecny with 13 minutes, 30 seconds left in regulation. A few minutes earlier, Claude Giroux made a nice move to get free from the high slot, but his shot sailed just wide.
The Flyers failed to connect on a power play that was awarded with 6:25 remaining. At that point, they were 0 for 3 and had a total of one shot on their power-play chances.
Mrazek made a great glove save on Jacob de la Rose's ticketed left-circle blast to keep the game scoreless with 2:17 left.
The Flyers had a 10-3 shots advantage in the first period, but Montreal had a couple of quality chances (and dangerous scrambles) from in close that Mrazek turned aside.
Lindgren made his two best first-period stops when he turned aside Sean Couturier from the slot and Konecny on the rebound with a little less than four minutes left in the stanza. Skating down the right side, Konecny made a slick backhanded drop pass to set up Couturier's chance.
Lindgren also made a great stop on Oskar Lindblom as he crashed the net with 14:40 left in the second and took a feed from Jake Voracek at the doorstep. Lindblom was bidding for his first NHL goal.
Montreal was missing goalie Carey Price, sidelined by a concussion suffered in last Tuesday's 3-2 overtime loss to the Flyers. The Habs, who are virtually out of the playoff race, went with Lindgren over veteran Anttti Niemi.
The Canadiens controlled most of the second period as they outshot the Flyers, 15-8, but Mrazek kept the game scoreless.
Montreal had a two-on-on one with 8:53 left in the second, but Phillip Danault fired wide. About a minute later, Mrazek stopped Brendan Gallagher's wrist shot from the left circle.
The Canadiens had their first power play late in the second period, but Mrazek made three saves and was the Flyers' best penalty killer. Val Filppula and Jori Lehtera also did admirable work on the PK.
With 2:27 to go in the second, Mrazek denied Paul Byron from in close, stopping the puck as it trickled toward the goal line.
The victory made the Flyers 2-5 in shootouts, and gave Mrazek a 3-0 record with his new team.
