PHILADELPHIA - If there is one thing during this NHL season that consistently eludes the Philadelphia Flyers, it's consistency.

The Flyers extended their win-one-lose-one streak to 11 games and fell to the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Thursday night at the Wachovia Center. The Canadiens have now won 4 straight over the Flyers.

Mark Streit scored twice, while Alexei Kostitsyn and Chris Higgins added goals for the Habs, who recently seem to have the Flyers' number.

Philly failed to build momentum off of a lopsided victory on Tuesday night over the Pittsburgh Penguins in which they dominated throughout. The Flyers led the shot totals again tonight, but Canadiens' rookie goaltender Carey Price made 29 saves to stymie the Philadelphia offense.

Antero Niittymaki made 19 saves in his 9th start for the Flyers this season.

The Higgins goal gave the Habs a 1-0 lead going into the 1st intermission, but Kostitsyn quickly doubled the lead just 21 seconds into the 2nd period to take the wind out of the Flyers sails.

Streit's first goal of the night extended the Habs' lead to 3-0 at 5:01 on the power play when Alex Kovalev fed him an easy tip-in pass right in front of Niittymaki. Three Flyers defenders were caught sleeping on the play, as Streit snuck behind them unnoticed for the positional advantage.

But Streit added another goal just under 5 minutes later to completely take the Philly crowd out of the game, and give the Canadiens a lead that would never be challenged.

The only Philadelphia goal, scored by Mike Knuble at 15:52 of the 2nd period, actually was more a result of luck, rather than skill. A pass sent by Mike Richards to the front of the net riccocheted off the skate of Knuble and slid right by Price before he was able to react.

Throughout the evening, Montreal seemed to be parked in every shooting lane the Flyers tried to use, and the Flyers were never really able to break through the Candiens' sit-back defense once a hefty lead had been established.

Price, who was the Canadiens fifth overall draft pick in the 2005 entry draft, made his fifth straight start in place of Cristobal Huet, who has been sidelined with a groin injury. Price's record now stands at 8-5 this year, and he may be conceivably be making a case for the starter's job.

NOTES: Prior to the game, the Flyers announced that they had agreed to terms with forward Mike Richards on a shiny new 12 year, $69 million contract that will keep the 22 year old in Philly through 2019. Richards was scheuled to become a restricted free agent this summer. Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher missed his 2nd straight game due to a knee injury, while forward Simon Gagne continues his recovery from a concussion suffered in late October.