Frustrated at seeing his team blow an early two-goal lead, Bruce Boudreau found plenty of consolation when the Washington Capitals got a tying goal late in regulation to set up a shootout win.
Nicklas Backstrom scored the only shootout goal on Washington's third attempt to give the Capitals a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night. Semyon Varlamov stopped Montreal shooters Mike Cammalleri, Maxim Lapierre and Tomas Plekanec.
Backstrom secured the win when he put a shot past Carey Price, who had stopped Tomas Fleischmann and Alexander Ovechkin.
Eric Fehr scored his second goal of the game to draw Washington even at 3-3 with 11.4 seconds remaining in regulation.
"Well, I'm glad we came back," said Boudreau, the Capitals' coach. "That's the first time we've scored with the goalie pulled and I think we only had like 15 shots on goal at that time, so I wasn't too hopeful until the last three minutes when we started to put a little bit of a push on.
"But they played a really, really good defensive game and they allowed no second shots and they were standing up and getting in our face all the time, so it was a tough game."
Fehr, who opened the scoring 8:47 in, got his second of the game - his sixth of the season - when he backhanded a rebound past Price after Montreal defenceman Paul Mara was called for high-sticking at 19:44 to send the game to overtime.
"We got two points on the road and you can't be disappointed in that but at the same time we've got to be a little bit better and we've got to play a full 60 minutes, which we haven't done in a while," Fehr said.
Elsewhere in the NHL it was: Boston 4 Ottawa (SO); Vancouver 7 Edmonton 3; Calgary 4 Columbus 3 (SO); Pittburgh 8 N.Y. Rangers 3; Atlanta 1 Philadelphia 0; Buffalo 5 Carolina 1; New Jersey 6 N.Y. Islanders 1; Nashville 4 Florida 1; Detroit 4 St. Louis 3 (SO); Dallas 4 Tampa Bay 3 (OT); Minnesota 3 Colorado 2 (SO); and Los Angeles 2 Chicago 1 (SO).
At Montreal, Ovechkin got his 18th goal midway through the first, 1:12 after Eric Fehr got his fifth as Washington scored on two of its first three shots to take a 2-0 lead.
Varlamov stopped 21 shots. The Russian rookie recorded his first regular-season shutout in his last outing Wednesday when he turned aside 25 shots in a 2-0 win over Buffalo.
Price made 20 saves for the Canadiens, 3-1-2 in their last six.
"For us, it's not good enough," Cammalleri said. "A lot of guys in here are upset. I don't really care who doesn't expect us to get the points. In this room we expect to get the points and we think that the way we've been able to play as a unit has been an effective way to get two points in a game and once again we put ourselves in position to do it tonight, so this group here is not happy with the one point."
Travis Moen gave Montreal a 3-2 lead with a power-play goal 5:34 into the third.
Moen got credit for his sixth of the season when he redirected Marc-Andre Bergeron's wrist shot from the deep slot past Varlamov to give Montreal its third straight goal after falling behind 2-0 midway through the first.
Jaroslav Spacek and Plekanec scored in the second for the Canadiens.
Fehr deflected Karl Alzner's point shot past Price for his fifth goal 8:47 in after the Capitals failed to record a shot during their first power-play opportunity early in the opening period.
Ovechkin made it a 2-0 lead when he drove a slapshot past Price into the left side of the net at 9:59.
Despite the two-goal lead, Washington was outshot 7-4 in the first.
"We just started being cute after the 10-minute mark," Boudreau said. "We'd get the puck in the zone and we'd try to make three passes before we shot the puck."
Spacek, who returned after missing two games because of injury, scored his second goal on a power-play goal 5:40 into the second to draw Montreal within 2-1.
Plekanec tied it 2-2 with his sixth goal at 13:50.
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Bruins 4 Senators 3 (SO)
At Boston, Michael Ryder scored the lone goal in the shootout, lifting the Bruins to their fifth win in six games - and sixth straight over Ottawa.
Milan Michalek forced overtime, scoring his second goal of the game for Ottawa with 19.3 seconds left and the goalie off for an extra attacker.
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Canucks 7 Oilers 3
At Vancouver, Christian Ehrhoff, Alex Burrows, Mason Raymond and Daniel Sedin scored in the first 8:25 to pace the Canucks.
Tanner Glass scored with 16.7 seconds left in the first period, and Alex Edler, Mikael Samuelsson added goals to help the Canucks win for the fourth time in five games and improve to 10-3-0 at home.
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Flames 4 Blue Jackets 3 (SO)
At Columbus, Ohio, Calgary backup Curtis McElhinney stopped Anton Stralman in the fourth round, and Jamie Lundmark followed with the shootout winner for the Flames.
With the Blue Jackets seemingly in control late in the third period with a 3-1 lead, Calgary's Dustin Boyd and Nigel Dawes scored in a 1:19 span to tie it.
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Penguins 8 Rangers 3
At Pittsburgh, Sidney Crosby had his fourth career hat trick and added two assists for his second five-point game as the Penguins won for the fourth time in five games.
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Thrashers 1 Flyers 0
At Atlanta, Johan Hedberg made 34 saves for his first shutout in two years as the Thrashers stopped a 14-game losing streak against Philadelphia.
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Sabres 5 Hurricanes 1
At Buffalo, N.Y., Ryan Miller made 30 saves, and the Sabres scored five goals in the third period to keep Carolina winless on the road.
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Devils 6 Islanders 1
At Newark, N.J., Brian Rolston and Patrik Elias each had two goals and two assists, and Martin Brodeur made 22 saves in the Devils' sixth straight home win.
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Predators 4 Panthers 1
At Nashville, Tenn., J.P. Dumont and David Legwand scored early in the third period, and Dan Ellis made 23 saves for the Predators.
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Red Wings 4 Blues 3 (SO)
At St. Louis, Todd Bertuzzi beat Chris Mason high with a backhander in the fourth round of the shootout to end Detroit's losing streak at three games.
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Stars 4 Lightning 3 (OT)
At Dallas, Tom Wandell scored at 2:12 of overtime as the Stars came back to win after blowing a two-goal lead late in regulation.
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Wild 3 Avalanche 2 (SO)
At Denver, Mikko Koivu and Andrew Ebbett scored in the shootout, and Josh Harding stopped both of Colorado's shooters to give Minnesota a home-and-home sweep.
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Kings 2 Blackhawks 1 (SO)
At Los Angeles, Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson scored in the first two rounds of a shootout and Jonathan Quick stopped both Chicago attempts, leading the Kings over the Blackhawks.
