Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Martin Biron made 32 saves and Philadelphia scored three times in the second period as the Flyers held on for a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Wachovia Center.

Scottie Upshall, Mike Richards and R.J. Umberger each scored a goal for the Flyers, who now hold a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

"That win tonight, to me, was a win of desperation, especially at the end there," Flyers coach John Stevens said. "We need to combine that desperation with better execution. It'll make the job a lot easier on ourselves."

Tomas Plekanec and Saku Koivu each had a goal while Carey Price was charged with all three goals on 12 shots for the Canadiens. Price was pulled from net after the second period and Jaroslav Halak finished the third by stopping the only two shots he faced.

Game 4 is set to take place on Wednesday in Philadelphia.

"I like the way we battled," said Philadelphia forward Danny Briere. "We just buckled down and fought through all the adversity that was thrown at us. That's about all I can say."

After a scoreless first period, the Flyers exploded for three goals in the middle frame.

The first came a bit over seven minutes in as Joffrey Lupul brought the puck into the zone and left a drop pass at the right point for Upshall, who fired a wrister past Price at the low left side.

Skating shorthanded, Richards fired a simple low wrister from the low slot that hit off of Habe defenseman Mike Komisarek and then off the glove of Price before trickling into the net with 4:48 left in the frame.

Just over three minutes later, Jeff Carter attempted a wraparound shot from the right side that Price stopped, but the rebound kicked out to the left circle where Umberger fired it home for a 3-0 lead.

Biron, who was stellar in the first period, didn't need to make many difficult saves in the second, but did stop all nine shots thrown his way in the frame.

Montreal got a nice present from the Flyers in the third period as Derian Hatcher got a five-minute major for boarding, along with a game misconduct, with 14:43 to play in regulation and the top-ranked power play in the regular season went to work.

The Habs wasted the first two minutes of the advantage, but scored twice before it expired to make it a one-goal game.

A shot from the right point got behind Biron and sat on the goal line by the left post before Plekanec poked it in at 7:29.

Only 1:12 later, Andrei Markov fired a shot from the left point that Biron stopped, but Koivu emerged from a scrum in front and tucked the rebound into an open net to make it a 3-2 contest.

Montreal got another power play opportunity with under six minutes to play as Lasse Kukkonen was called for interference, but the penalty killers did a good job of keeping the puck to the outside and Biron easily stopped the shots sent his way.

"We've had some penalties called against us that have hurt, definitely, cut our momentum, cut our style of play," Biron said. "But we've gotten momentum off of them because we've done a good job killing penalties."

With under a minute remaining, the Habs got Halak out of the net for the extra attacker and had the puck in the Flyers end for almost the entire time, but were unable to get any quality scoring chances as the Flyers held on for the win.

"We don't do anything the easy way," said Stevens. "A 3-0 lead there, felt like the beginning of the third period was our best part of the hockey game. Even the first two minutes of that five-minute power play, I felt we did a great job of holding the blue line, getting pucks down the ice and rolling through, but we let them back in the hockey game. I'd like to see us get the lead, keep the lead and pull away as opposed to making it that exciting at the end."

The first 20 minutes of the game were scoreless, but Montreal had several chances to take the lead.

A bit over six minutes in, Koivu skated in on a breakaway down the right side. As he cut to the front, Biron used his stick to poke the puck away from Koivu before he was able to get a shot off.

Halfway through the frame, Steve Downie and Sami Kapanen were both whistled for minors to give the Habs a full two minutes of 5-on-3 power play time. Their best opportunity came when Mark Streit had the puck in the slot with an open shooting lane and fired a blast on net, but Biron flashed the glove to swallow the puck.

In all, Biron made eight saves while Price made five in the first period.