The Montreal Canadiens awoke Sunday morning in snowy, blustery Edmonton as a second-place team for the first time all season. They’d been tied by Ottawa (but technically passed), their six-game winning streak had been snapped Thursday in Calgary in a 5-0 whooping, and now a flu bug was running through the team.

Montreal had one more game to play before closing a four-game road trip that had started in New York City and ended on the Western Canadian prairies, and 53 minutes into the game against the Edmonton Oilers, Montreal trailed 1-0.

They were about to go 0-for-Alberta, when something happened.

“It was a different feeling than we had last game,” said Brendan Gallagher, the Habs spark plug who won the corner battle that would become Montreal’s ice-breaker 13:33 into the third period. “I think we didn’t deserve to score against Calgary. Tonight we did a good job of continuing to press, continuing to press and we had that belief, regardless of how many saves the other guy is going to make, eventually we’re going to break through.

“Surely enough it happened before the end of the game for us. We stuck with it and got rewarded.”

This was a game that would form a chapter in the Coaching 101 text book, as Montreal didn’t deviate from its game plan despite a 1-0 deficit in the game’s waning moments. They counted on their goalie, Carey Price, to deny the Oilers a second goal, won their battles, and collectively raised their arms when Gallagher won a puck to Phillip Danault, who fed Byron in the slot for the 1-1 goal.

Then, as if the Hockey Gods had switched their Centre Ice package over to the game just moments before, the Habs got the gift of perseverance just 69 seconds later when a shot deflected off of Oiler Oscar Klefbom’s stick and slipped under the crossbar behind a chance-less Cam Talbot.

A couple of empty-netters by Byron — who had been flu stricken only the day before — and Max Pacioretty, and Montreal boarded their charter with a tidy 4-1 win.

“He’s a great player,” Pacioretty said of Byron. “He’s huge for us offensively and he’s not just scoring meaningless goals either. Those are huge goals. He broke through tonight and got the game-winner against Nashville (four games ago). He’s got some good poise with the puck and it shows and was rewarded.”