Chris Neil's third-period goal lifted the Ottawa Senators over the Montreal Canadiens 4-2 on Monday at Scotiabank Place.
Neil's marker, his second in as many games, came early in the third frame. He also added an assist.
But it was the Canadiens who opened the scoring.
Forward Mike Cammalleri got the Habs on the board early in the first period.
Andrei Markov's slap pass found Andrei Kostitsyn in the right corner. The winger sent the puck cross-ice to Cammalleri for his 19th goal of the season, giving Montreal a 1-0 lead.
"I'm the kind of guy who likes the romantic aspect of hockey," said Cammalleri. "I'm glad I could be a part of this organization and this is extremely special."
It took only five minutes for the visitors to score again.
Brian Gionta fanned on a shot in front of Senators goaltender Pascal Leclaire. The puck dribbled to forward Benoit Pouliot, who chipped a backhand over a sprawling Leclaire, doubling the Canadiens lead. Scott Gomez also assisted on the play.
"We played a great 10 minutes, the first 10 minutes of the game, and then we stopped skating and started taking bad penalties," Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak said. "You can't win the game sitting in the penalty box."
The Canadiens took five minor penalties in the game, while the Sens kept their cool.
"I think the key tonight, we played pretty disciplined," Leclaire said.
Ottawa cut into the Montreal lead at 12:48 of the first frame.
Chris Campoli's point shot hit teammate Neil's foot and redirected to a waiting Peter Regin, who one-timed the puck into the open cage.
Montreal nearly regained the two-goal cushion late in the first. Markov found Pouliot up the middle on a partial breakaway, but Leclaire turned aside the high shot, sending it over the glass and keeping the score 2-1.
"You've got to give credit to Leclaire, for sure," Pouliot said. "We had a lot of good chances and he came up big for them."
The Canadiens outshot Ottawa 13 to 11 in the first period.
Gomez, who has six points in the past three games, came close midway through the second.
On the penalty kill, the speedy forward intercepted a pass and went in alone on Leclaire, but the puck rolled off his stick and into the corner.
"[Leclaire] played great," Sens forward Mike Fisher said. "He made a number of big stops and had a great game for us and kept us in it. If it wasn't for him, especially after that first period, we would have been down by more than a few."
Ottawa tied the game at 15:33 of the second.
After Jaro Spacek went off for interference, the Sens took advantage on the power play. Regin won the draw to point man Ryan Shannon, the defenceman sent a wrist shot on goal that caromed off Montreal's Josh Gorges and fooled Halak, evening the score at 2-2.
Ottawa nearly took the lead with less the 30 seconds to play in the second.
Alex Kovalev fed Fisher in the slot. The forward snapped a shot into the top corner past Halak. But the goal was called back as Neil appeared to interfere with the Canadiens goaltender.
But the gritty Senator got his redemption early in the third.
Fisher stepped out from the right corner and sent a high shot on Halak. Neil crashed the net and tipped the puck out of the air and into the goal, giving Ottawa a one-goal lead.
"I think it went off Milan [Michalek] up in the air and then when I came in, I whacked it in," Neil said. "I had to wait for it to come down, too."
Following a review, the stick was deemed to be under the crossbar and it was ruled a goal.
"I didn't know what was going on," said Halak. "I knew I stopped the first shot and then I didn't know where the puck was, and unfortunately for us it ended up in the net — too bad it wasn't a high stick."
Campoli added an empty-netter late in the period for the 4-2 victory.
With files from The Canadian Press
