The Edmonton Oilers didn't make it easy on themselves, but they hung on to defeat the visiting Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Saturday at Rexall Place.

With less than four minutes to go, things turned dicey when Edmonton forward Shawn Horcoff deflected a Montreal shot from the point past his own goaltender to make the score 3-2, bringing the Habs within one goal of tying the game.

But unlike the last two times against Calgary, the Oilers held on in the final minute as Habs netminder Carey Price was pulled for an extra attacker, and iced the win.

Oilers goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, still smarting from a gaffe that handed the Calgary Flames a victory last week, stood firm in the Edmonton crease on Saturday, making 33 saves for the win. Price made 16 saves in a losing cause.

"I think we got some bad breaks tonight but we scored enough goals to overcome that," Khabibulin told Scott Oake of Hockey Night in Canada after the game. "I thought in the third period we played defensively very well."

'Things like that happen'

Mike Comrie, Jean-Francois Jacques, and Patrick O'Sullivan scored for the Oilers (2-1-1), while Brian Gionta and Roman Hamrlik — who was credited with the goal Horcoff put in his own net — countered for Montreal.

"Things like that happen," Khabibulin said on Horcoff's goal. "He tried to make a good play, unfortunately it changed direction and it went right into the net."

The win was a salve after the Oilers were left smarting from two heartbreaking losses to the rival Flames in the span of a week.

The Canadiens (2-3-0) have given up 14 goals in their last three games — all losses.

"It's extremely disappointing," said Canadiens defenceman Paul Mara. "I thought we played pretty well. We outshot them 35-19. It's tough to lose these last three games after having a great 2-0 start."

The Habs opened the contest firing on all cylinders, but couldn't capitalize on their chances to open the scoring, thanks to sharp goaltending from Khabibulin.

The Russian stopped a short-handed two-on-one along with a couple of sharp shots from Andrew Cogliano and Scott Gomez early in the first period.

"He got us the two points tonight," said Oilers head coach Pat Quinn. "He was very sharp. He was ready to play right off the bat which was a good thing because we certainly let him get tested right off the bat. For the most part, he was the story for us."

Comrie opened the scoring at 18:40 of the first frame. He took a stretch pass from Sam Gagner on the tape while streaking down the left wing and put the puck over Price's glove hand.

With that goal, the 29-year-old centre became the first Oiler to record at least one point in each of the first four games of the season since Shawn Horcoff in 2005-06.

Edmonton made it 2-0 3:32 into the second. Jacques scored his first goal of the season when he tipped a Ladislav Smid point shot past Price.

Timeout calms team

The Habs went down 3-0 when O'Sullivan bulled his way through three Montreal defenders in the slot to slide his first goal of the season by Price at 8:10 of the second.

Habs head coach Jacques Martin then called a timeout to calm down the troops.

The pep talk didn't seem to work as the Oilers continued to dominate play, and they almost added to their lead on a power play halfway through the second, but Gagner and O'Sullivan both hit the goal post.

The Habs cut into the lead thanks to persistent work by Gionta, who stripped the puck off Edmonton defender Gilbert Brule in the Oiler zone and slapped one by Khabibulin at 19:10 for his third of the season, making the score 3-1.

The Oilers are in Nashville on Monday, and after a 10-day, five-game road trip, Montreal hosts Colorado in its home opener at the Bell Centre on Thursday.