As much as Sidney Crosby has struggled to produce in Montreal, it hasn't mattered one bit.

With Pittsburgh's superstar captain held in check, Pascal Dupuis and Sergei Gonchar picked up the slack with one goal and one assist apiece in a 3-2 Penguins victory over the Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Thursday night.

Gonchar's assist, on Matt Cooke's tip-in goal in the second period, represented his 650th career point.

"That was a huge goal," Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma said. "The momentum was clearly in their favour and the building was pumping."

"We didn't give them a lot and we played really well," Crosby noted. "It was a great win for us."

Crosby has 11 goals and 24 points in 17 career games against the Canadiens — the team he cheered for as a child — but he hasn't scored in his last five trips to Montreal and been held without a point there in the last three.

Not that the Kid came in cold.

Crosby ranks third in league scoring with 37 points, including eight goals in his last four games, but there seems to be a hex on him at the Bell Centre.

Case in point, with the Penguins clinging to a 3-2 lead, he found himself staring at an empty net in the final minute and bounced the puck wide of the post.

"We were staying in our game tonight," said Crosby, who had four goals and five points in 6-1 and 3-1 wins over Montreal at Mellon Arena earlier this season.

"It's always special to play in Montreal," noted Dupuis, from Laval, Que. "We have five or six guys who have family and friends around here."

Dupuis broke a 2-2 deadlock with 6:39 left, collecting Brook Orpik's carom pass off the side boards and scoring on a fluttering slapshot off the tip of Carey Price's trapper.

"The puck was on edge, but I tried to shoot it as hard as I can," Dupuis said. "It was knuckle puck so if I don't know where it's going, neither does Price."

"He's got a great shot," Crosby pointed out. "We have seen it a few times.

"If it knuckles, you cannot really blame Price. It was moving everywhere."

Seventy-three seconds later, Canadiens forward Scott Gomez pounced on a loose puck in the crease and scored the tying goal, only to have it waved off because referee Chris Lee had — hastily — whistled the play dead.

"If the referee intends to whistle, the play is dead," Canadiens head coach Jacques Martin said. "The puck was there, but there's nothing you can do."

"Maybe he blew it a little quick, but you don't want to be in that situation," Gomez reasoned. "I'm not going to say anything bad about the refs.

"They've got a job to do and they do it well. Call it mistake or what, but these things happen."

Marc-Andre Fleury posted 19 saves as Pittsburgh extended its winning streak over Montreal to five games.

'We've got to play a lot better'

Matt D'Agostini and Roman Hamrlik replied for the Canadiens, who had a three-game winning streak halted.

Price faced 41 shots in defeat.

"Carey played unbelievable again for us," Canadiens forward Maxim Lapierre said. "We have to build on the last four games we've played."

"We're taking way too many penalties," lamented Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges. "It's killing us.

"Our penalty killers are doing a great job, but we're spending way too much time in our own end. They're building energy and we're wasting energy.

"Turnovers lead to penalties, so we've got to clean up our game. We were in it, but we've got to play a lot better."

'Carey was great'

The balance of play tilted in Pittsburgh's favour in a fast-paced first period devoid of penalties, and Montreal was fortunate to trail only 1-0 through one.

Price kept it scoreless with several solid saves until a pinching Gonchar snuck unseen behind the Canadiens defence and converted Bill Guerin's backhand chip 6:38 into the contest.

Pittsburgh kept pressuring and could well have widened the margin if not for Price, who outfoxed Jordan Staal on a breakaway and foiled Cooke on the rebound.

Montreal was outshot 11-7 and outchanced 6-1 in the first period, and held without a shot in the second until D'Agostini tied it 1-1 on a quick snapshot from the slot at 10:48.

It was D'Agostini's second goal this season and seemed to spark the Canadiens, who took the lead on Hamrlik's laser-like screen shot from the point less than four minutes later.

Hamrlik's fifth was a power-play marker, a rarity considering the Canadiens rank last in the NHL with 94 power-play opportunities.

Montreal's lead proved shortlived, however, as Cooke tipped Gonchar's point shot past Price for the tying goal with 2:15 left in the period.

Pittsburgh had glorious opportunities to regain the lead early in the third, but Evgeni Malkin's rising wrist shot clanked off the crossbar and Price blocked Guerin's shot off a slick feed from Crosby in the corner.

"Carey was great," Canadiens forward Mike Cammalleri said. "He made many saves that otherwise could have — or should have — been in."

With files from The Canadian Press