The Montreal Canadiens improved their effort, but unless they can find a way to solve their special team woes and Philadelphia Flyers goalie Michael Leighton , the Eastern Conference final will remain a one-sided affair.

The stingy goalie from Petrolia, Ont., made another 30 saves for his second successive shutout in the Flyers' 3-0 victory at the Wachovia Center on Tuesday.

Leighton became only the second goalie in Flyers history to record back-to-back shutouts and he has a shutout streak of 165 minutes 50 seconds, dating back to the first period of the Flyers' seventh game against the Boston Bruins in the previous round.

The only other Philadelphia goalie to notch back-to-back shutouts was Bernie Parent. He blanked the Toronto Maple Leafs in the opening two games of the second-round series on their way to their second consecutive Stanley Cup in 1975.

With Leighton's impressive play, the Flyers are now two victories away from advancing to the Stanley Cup final once again with the conference final heading to Montreal for Game 3 on Thursday (CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET).

"He's playing great," said Montreal forward Brian Gionta, who led the Habs with eight shots on goal. The Canadiens outshot Philadelphia 30-23 and are now 0-5 in the 2010 post-season when they outshoot the opposition.

The Canadiens had not been blanked in back-to-back playoff games since Buffalo Sabres goalie Bob Sauve did so in the first two games of a 3-0 sweep in 1983.

"We have to find a way to put more traffic in front of him," Gionta said, referring to Leighton. "He's seeing the first shot and, in the NHL, every goalie is going to make the first save."

The Canadiens also are losing the special teams battle in a big way. Danny Briere and Simon Gagne scored power-play goals in the first and second periods, respectively. That means that the Flyers have struck for four power-play goals in the two outings against the Canadiens. Meanwhile, Montreal has gone 0-8 in man-advantage situations in the series.

So what can the Canadiens do to better defend Philadelphia power play?

"We have to do a little better job boxing out and collapsing more in front of the goal," said Gionta, noting the rebound goal-mouth scramble marker scored by Gagne.

They also could stay out of the penalty box.

The biggest offender has been veteran centre Scott Gomez. For the second successive game, Gomez took an early penalty with Montreal already on the power play. The Flyers scored after their penalty expired and with Gomez still in the box.

This same scenario played out in the series opener. This time, Gomez hooked Philadelphia's Claude Giroux in Montreal's end. Gomez clearly wasn't pleased by the call. When Briere scored on a dandy shot, he was even more upset.

"My stick got caught on him," Gomez explained. "There was nothing I could do. I lifted my hands to show the referee, but it was called anyway."

'That's sports, man'

The frustrating part for the Canadiens was how well they played in the first period, but trailed 1-0. They were all over the Flyers on two power-play opportunities, but couldn't get one past Leighton.

"We got in on the forecheck and sustained pressure, but we have to find a way," Gionta said. "We have to score some ugly goals at this time of the year."

"That's sports man," Montreal's Michael Cammalleri added. "That how it goes. Sometimes, you play well enough to win, but you don't. We got a little better, but we can keep getting better."

The capacity crowd 19,907 at the Wachovia Center stuck it to the visitors in the latter half of the game a few times by singing "Ole, Ole, Ole" — a victory song tradition at the Bell Centre.

The Flyers now have a league-leading 17 in the playoffs. Philadelphia's Ville Leino added a goal in the third period from a bad angle that Jaroslav Halak bobbled and ended up behind him.

Canadiens coach Jacques Martin made one alteration to his lineup. He sat fourth-liner Benoit Pouliot and brought back in Sergei Kostitsyn, who played only 4:57.

There also were minor adjustments made to the bottom three forward lines. Tom Pyatt moved up to play alongside Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta. Dominic Moore and Maxim Lapierre played on a line with Mathieu Darche. Kostitsyn played on the fourth line with centre Glen Metropolit and Travis Moen.

But in the third period, Martin used several different combinations in the hopes of shaking a goal out of his struggling club.